December 2015

Dear Friends,

During this holiday season, we want to express our gratitude for the amazing amount of support you have given to the Daniel B. Allanoff Foundation, keeping Dan’s memory alive and furthering our research to find a cure for blood cancers.

It’s hard to believe that Dan will have been gone from our lives three years this coming January. He would be so proud of all that we have accomplished together. Since the inception of the DBA Foundation in April of 2013, with your tremendous help and generosity, we have raised almost $300,000 for blood cancer research. Most of the money goes directly to fund our research on Dan’s own Leukemic cell line at The University of Pennsylvania.  Nearly $170,000 has been raised this past year alone. 

As Dr. Mariusz Wasik, our head researcher at Penn, will tell you, this is a crucial and exhilarating time in the field of hematopathology. The medical community’s understanding of disease pathogenesis is improving rapidly, and this knowledge is leading to tremendous advances in the prognosis and treatment of blood cancers. 

Our Foundation’s mission is to fund this type of exciting, groundbreaking research. Dr. Wasik says, “the key is to replace the current standard, toxic and relatively non-specific chemotherapeutic approaches to cancer treatment, with novel therapies based on the molecular makeup of cancer cells.” Dan’s own cells, stored at Penn, allow us to keep testing for ways to specifically target the genetic aberrations of the cancer cells. 

Approximately every four minutes someone in the US is diagnosed with a blood cancer.
With your help we are making great strides in our mission and fulfilling Dan’s dream of helping others who are faced with the difficult diagnosis of cancer.

Please take a minute to check out the look of our new website at Danielballanofffoundation.com.  On behalf of all of us, we wish you a very happy and healthy New Year!!  

Best,

Andrea Allanoff
Executive Director