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$700,000 NEEDED TO GET FIRST-EVER
LAM TREATMENT TRIAL OFF THE GROUND!
Envision a future where LAM is treatable. Today we can only imagine, but we have every reason to hope that today’s dream could be tomorrow’s reality. This request is being made by The LAM Foundation Board of Trustees, made up of LAM patients and LAM family who have the most to gain…and the most to lose. We write with a sense of urgency as we recently witnessed, within four weeks, the deaths of seven women who lost their struggle with LAM. Children lost mothers, husbands lost wives, parents lost children, and friends lost friends. One fiancé lost his 27-year-old bride-to-be just two weeks before their wedding. Scientists estimate that 250,000 women with LAM are going undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. The tragedy of misdiagnosis was evident this week when a woman who was undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer was subsequently diagnosed with LAM after learning about it through a LAM fundraising event.
But there is hope. This is a historic moment for everyone in the LAM community because our journey of a thousand miles is about to take an enormous leap! Thanks to the dedicated labors of LAM Foundation scientists, the encouraging results of our initial pilot study, and the long-awaited approval from the National Institutes of Health, the global MILES Trial is about to begin! This trial will test the effectiveness of the FDA-approved drug, rapamycin, for the treatment of LAM. The scientific basis of the trial is rock-solid. Dr. Elizabeth Henske, one of the Foundation’s most esteemed scientists, said, “This is one of the finest examples of bench-to-bedside targeted molecular therapy that I’ve ever seen.”
As you can imagine, a full-scale clinical trial with multiple sites is extraordinarily expensive. The final price tag? $2.6 million. We are grateful for the $1.9 million that has already been pledged through Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, the National Institutes of Health, and LAM community fundraising. We still need $700,000 to get this trial off the ground. We still need you!
Your past support has brought us to the brink of what could be the greatest breath of hope for LAM patients worldwide, but we are not there yet. We must fund this trial! And we must do it without compromising other basic and clinical research. We hope you will find it in your heart to make a tax-deductible donation in honor of the many women with LAM who struggle bravely every day, in remembrance of those who are no longer with us, and for women of the future who have yet to be diagnosed.
With great hope,
The LAM Foundation Board of Trustees