National telecast aims to raise awareness, funds for research
A growing number of Hollywood celebrities, famous athletes and journalists will appear on the Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) telecast on Friday, Sept. 10, at 7 p.m., to raise funds for cancer research.
The one-hour live event will be simulcast commercial-free on ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, HBO, Showtime, Discovery Health, E!, The Style Network, VH1 and several other cable channels. The show will be hosted by network television anchors Katie Couric, Brian Williams and Diane Sawyer.
Stand Up To Cancer is a charitable initiative of The Entertainment Industry Foundation, created to accelerate cancer research that will get new therapies to patients quickly and save lives.
SU2C's goal is to bring together the best and the brightest in the cancer community, encouraging collaboration instead of competition.
The first SU2C telecast, which aired in 2008, raised millions of dollars. Two Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) investigators have already received research funding from SU2C.
Carlos Arteaga, M.D., professor of Medicine and Cancer Biology and director of the Breast Cancer Program at VICC, is a member of one of the international cancer research “Dream Teams” organized and funded by SU2C. Arteaga and VICC patient advocate Patricia Lee are part of the Dream Team initiative investigating the PI3K genetic pathway in women's cancers.
William Pao, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Medicine and director of Personalized Cancer Medicine, has been awarded a SU2C grant to identify molecules that could speed up the search for new cancer drugs and targets.
Pao and his colleagues are studying mutant kinases, molecules inside cells involved in telling a cell whether to proliferate. He is one of 13 young cancer investigators to earn an Innovative Research Grant from SU2C.