Phase II trials at City of Hope build on research you helped make possible

Years of hard work you made possible are unlocking secrets to defeating breast cancer.

“We want to be able to speed [therapies] to our patients”

Even the toughest forms of cancer may someday be tamed by promising new medications, thanks to your support of City of Hope.

Phase II trials are currently under way at City of Hope on a promising new drug called Vorinostat. Early results show it stabilized cancer growth in a small group of women with stage 4 breast cancer.

Stage 4 is the most advanced form of breast cancer, and it involves cancer spreading to other organs. In combination with other drugs, the City of Hope team running the tests believe Vorinostat may become part of an effective treatment for advanced breast cancer.

If it does, patients will have you to thank for it.  That's because Vorinostat has deep roots at City of Hope, and specifically in the field of epigenetics, in which City of Hope researchers have been leaders.

Epigenetics explores how genes are inappropriately "turned on" or "turned off" in a patient's body. In some cases, an "off" gene could help fight the spread of cancer if it can be turned back on.

Arthur Riggs, Ph.D., director of City of Hope's Beckman Research Institute, is one of the pioneers of epigenetics.

"Science is moving quickly on these epigenetics therapies," says City of Hope's Thehang Luu, M.D., principal investigator for the Vorinostat study. "We'd like to be able to speed them to our patients as fast as we can."

Thank you for supporting the science that makes promising drugs like Vorinostat possible ... and for empowering City of Hope's unique combination of science and medicine. As Dr. Luu says, that will speed treatments to the patients who need them. Keep up the great work by using the enclosed reply form to send a renewal gift today!