Miles for Mary, an organization that seeks to raise awareness of the effects of brain cancer in the community and raise funds to support Brain Cancer Research at Massachusetts General Hospital, is hosting a dinner seminar Monday.
The organization seeks to honor the memory of Mary Park of Marblehead, who died from glioblastoma in 2012 only a few weeks after her initial diagnosis.
The seminar will be held at Eastern Yacht Club on Nov. 7, beginning at 5:15 p.m.
Miles for Mary directly supports the study of innovative treatments for brain tumors, with a particular focus on glioblastoma. 100 percent of the funds raised are directed to the work of neuro-oncologist Dr. Elizabeth Gerstner at the Mass General Cancer Center. Massachusetts General Hospital, as part of the Dana-Farber Harvard Cancer Center, was selected as one of five sites nationally to participate in the Glioma Therapeutics Network funded by the NIH to focus on new treatments for Glioblastoma.
At the seminar, Gerstner will be joined by Dr. Brian Choi, a neurosurgeon who leads a research laboratory that seeks to develop the next generation of cell therapies and clinical trials in neuro-oncology. Together, they will explain the latest advances in brain cancer research, including CAR T-cell therapies, a type of treatment in which a patient’s immune cells are changed in the laboratory so they will attack cancer cells.
Since 2013, Miles for Mary has raised $500,000 for treatment research at Mass General Cancer Center.
According to the National Institute of Health, more than 25,000 people will be diagnosed with brain cancer this year, and an estimated 18,000 people will die from the disease. While the disease is rare, little is known about brain cancer, specifically glioblastoma, or how to treat it. Limited research dollars are directed toward its treatment relative to other cancers. The National Brain Tumor Society states that the five-year relative survival rate for glioblastoma is only 6.8 percent with a median survival of only 8 months.