As the year winds down, we can look back on an event-filled year of significant progress (and some disappointments) in the fight to cure CLL.

 

We've submitted our registration to the IRS for 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt status.  We've opened a bank account, and have a balance of over $1,500.  We are seeking funding opportunities to donate in the future.

 

 

We have made some progress this month in our efforts to raise money (and awareness) of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia.

 

First of all, as mentioned elsewhere, we have identified a potential research study that we may support financially.  That is the Chinese herbal extract that was the subject of a paper by Drs. Battle, Gribben, and Frank of Dana-Farber, and published in Leukemia Research. 

 

It's a long story that has been repeated elsewhere, but the paper concerns a patient who had an excellent response to his taking of an infusion from what was described as 'twigs, roots and bark' fashioned by a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine.  The patient supplied some of this extract to the researchers, who tested it in vitro against CLL cells, and found that the substance did indeed kill CLL cells.

 

 

One of the reasons for the founding of Cure for CLL is to fund research projects that lead to better treatments, and are in need of support.  There is at present no product to patent, no product to attract the attention of the pharmaceutical companies.  Thus, it is certainly unlikely that they would give money to fund research in it.

 

That makes it harder to get such a project funded, obviously.

 

And that's were we can come in.  By supporting such research, we are adding to the base of knowledge concerning CLL.  And if further testing of this substance shows it to be efficacious and relatively non-toxic, there may be a new avenue of research into better treatments, as the agent(s) that work against CLL are identitied.