myeloma « WordPress.com Tag Feed

margaret's blog - myeloma and curcumin

cancerfighter — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:10:47 +0000

http://margaret.healthblogs.org/

We're funding the research to end this disease once and for all

sowgenerously — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:27:39 +0000

I just got back in from 2.4 miles around Wash Park with a group of TNT teammates this morning. We meet on Saturdays at 6:50 a.m. at beautiful running trails to stretch and warmup, then we each run according to our time and pace. I was up to one 10K every Saturday and Sunday before last week.

Today, I mostly walked, ran a little, just about half of my normal weekly miles because I just had shoulder surgery a week ago. The shoulder doesn't bother me at all, it's the lingering bronchitis from the anesthesia! Can't run if you can't breathe!

Found these little videos that explain why I get up and get moving even the day after my surgery.

Please help me reach my goal to fight blood cancers. $5, $10, $50... it all makes a difference! Donate securely online at my official Team in Training website:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/rm/denver08/tholladay

National Spokesperson is a former Olympian with a blood cancer

I loved this man's story!

Marty Liquori • National Chairman & Spokesperson

Marty has served as national spokesperson for TNT since 1990 and has been an influence in the world of sports and fitness for three decades. After running a sub-four-minute mile in high school, he became the top-ranked miler and 5,000-meter runner in the world. In Mexico City, in 1968, he became the youngest person to participate in the Olympic 1,500-meter finals.

Marty conceived of the idea of a sporting goods store that sold only athletic shoes. He created the Athletic Attic chain, which grew to 250 stores by 1980.

As a broadcaster, Marty has covered six Olympics, 25 New York City Marathons, eight Ironman triathlons and numerous other sports events. He is currently host and producer of Saucony Running and Racing on ESPN.

"I was asked to be (TNT) chairman because of my work as an ESPN commentator and former world class runner," he said. "Ironically, a few months later I was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. I was now beyond just volunteering. I realized that the work of the Society through Team In Training was helping me. I learned how important this program is rather quickly. Fortunately, others had been working on these cures before I came along."

"It's a life-changing experience"

"The largest sports endurance program in the world... all while raising money to fight blood cancers"

"What I didn't expect .. was so many friends"

"You don't have to be Joe athlete coming in here"

"The team aspect is everything -- Go Team in Training!"

"I know they're helping me survive"

Leukemia, Lymphoma, and Myeloma Patients Tell How the Leukemia Society helps them

Thanks to your donations, more people than ever are surviving blood cancers

An amazing one-minute video!

30-second ad - child with leukemia

Right Now, Racing for Lives by TNT Canadian Team Member Graham Snowden

Every day, 38 Canadians are diagnosed with a blood cancer.
Every day, 18 Canadians die from a blood cancer.

Here's something you can do not for me but for someone with leukemia

sowgenerously — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:19:47 +0000

Just so you know, my health issues prompted me to "get healthy" and I'm now training for a marathon. But this marathon training isn't all about me! It's about raising money to fight leukemia. (Follow my journal at http://SheCanRun.com).

Here's my first activity. $500 in sales will net a $100 check made out to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, so brothers and sisters, have a ball!! If 25 people spend $20 each, that will hit my goal! Your order is secure and product will be shipped directly to your door.

An Online Body Shop at Home Party!

You just have to go to the web site below (before June 30, 2008), poke around to see what "smells" good to you, put in your order, and they will send me a check made out to LLS for 20% of the total party sales!

http://www.thebodyshopathome.com/web/hward

Write down my name before you click through, Teresa Holladay, and when you are on the "check out" page, add my name in the "For party orders please enter host name".

If you just want to donate your $20 directly, go to my official LLS Team in Training website at:
http://pages.teamintraining.org/rm/denver08/tholladay

You will be helping to support not only the great cause of the Leukemia Society but the "mother earth" causes of The Body Shop at Home.

Body Shop ladies were at one of our fundraising expos and I LOVED their body butters!! They smell soooo good! I'm a citrus-scent gal so I went for the Satsuma body butter (that smells like oranges and angerines).

I'm looking at the bag of samples they gave me... Olive, cocoa butter, hemp, moringa, mango, brazil nut, passion fruit, aloe, coconut, papaya, shea... They all smell delicious!

What I really liked is that THEY DON'T TEST THEIR PRODUCTS ON ANIMALS!! They have had this policy since 31 December 1990!

Even better, their exotic ingredients come through "community trade", which means they source ingredients from disadvantaged communities and they offer a fair price so these people can invest in clean water, better education, sanitation, and modern farming methods. It's also sustainable, meaning, they're not depleting the natural resources.

It's win-win-win, and that's not ALL. If you buy certain products, they donate a percent to fight violence towards women.

P.S. If you have to raise funds for one of YOUR causes, try this one, it's so much healthier than cookie and candy sales!

The Usual Suspects

spotchie — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 07:42:26 +0000

Today was another interesting day. Well sort of. To start off, we had a holiday yesterday, so today actually felt like a Monday but it was a Thursday and tomorrow is Friday...YAY!

I picked up my prints and I actually feel good about my portfolio cover. That's unusual because normally I feel unsettled about most of my work. But I actually feel its quite decent. I'll have to see what my mentors say about it. Dave says I just gotta do what makes me happy. And this direction makes me happy. So we'll see. Maybe this is why I don't feel so uncomfortable about it. I'll keep working on refining it. But for now, I think it's good enough to takes it place at the front of my book.

Now I've got work on changing my website. Right now it has a plain theme, a bit serious, a bit timid..which is me, but I also like humor and it is such a huge part of me. So I gotta do this, right? Change things up a bit.

In the mail today were the confirmations from the Hospital for my mom. She'll be going in July for a consultation regarding her myeloma. We'll see if she's okay to do a bone marrow transplant. I hope she can and I hope she'll be all right. I keep putting myself in her shoes and always feeling anxious because if I was her, I'd want the process to go faster. Get things done and begin the healing process. The lesson to be learned for me is patience...

Hospital glimpses

mvlturner — Sat, 31 May 2008 14:21:52 +0000

I am being treated for cancer (don't go away). The treatment for my myeloma — bone marrow cancer — has lasted for a year and consisted thus far in oral medication. Because my immunity is sometimes severely lowered, I am under strict instructions, in the event of any high-temperature, to present myself at the Accident and Emergency department of the local hospital.

Recently this actually happened and I was able to present the letter I have been carrying around for ten months. The modern medical world is adept at capturing, spider-like, its victims and, once captured, it is very hard to escape its clutches. I soon found myself an in-patient.

In the curtained cubicle where I was first examined, I could hear the agonising pains and groans of an old lady in the next door cubicle who had been brought in by a patient black carer from an old people's home. Amidst the rising and falling howls were occasional snatches of intelligible speech. My wife, waiting with me, procured some blankets for her when she complained of feeling cold. The lowering of the high-pitched tones, and the increase in the proportion of human speech, seemed to signal increasing calm. At one point, the patient black lady asked her what she wanted and, unexpectedly, received the reply:

I want to sit up and say my prayers.

The admitting doctor, from the subcontinent, advised, "Record, record" (times and dates of headaches and temperature levels), because “Memory is bad,” but would probably follow his friends to the better opportunities in Australia.

I welcome signs of modernity, order and military discipline, forceful management and obedience to training; clarity of purpose at the top — the doctors; but at ward level things get a little ragged, plans don't work out, the story changes among the brown faces and imperfect English.

Although the system is brilliant the individual’s case has to be lobbied, nailed down, pro-activated. And of course everyone is worse off than me, so no complaints — nothing but admiration for the ardent nurses, the night nurses who suffer in a wholly professional manner strident lunatics, wailing retardates, drug-stirred makers of noise and mischief.

Mostly people do not do the things they say they will do. Why? Are they too swept-up by the rush of the immediate? Overworked? Fickle? As always, it is a question of making things happen, seeing things through, not in fits and starts and in response to nuisance.

I inhabit a side-room — a luxury allowed not for social but for immunity reasons. As clean and modern as a hotel room, with an ensuite bathroom, it is nevertheless bare except for varieties of technological equipment. These "rooms" are apparently modular — and lowered into place by a crane. Their floors echo. Next door is an old, and probably demented lady, sent to try the patience of the staff, especially the night nurses. Though by the morning her bedding is sopping wet and stiffened with urine, she will not let anybody touch her. Nevertheless this must be done and gives rise to animal howling that rises progressively in tone and harps on a repeated rhythm. Sometimes this rhythm seems to consist in words, which can be made out:

I hate you, you fuckers.

It is explained to me that any skin shade darker than that of Filipina evokes this response. The lady does not object nearly so much to being touched by white nurses.

During the day I hear a most surprising quadrille. She has put on her shoes, at least, and patrols the entire length of our party wall. Once or twice the steps acquire a rhythm, as if she were practising for the Royal Ballet. Long before I learn anything else about her, I determine from the weight of steps that she is female.

Perhaps it is long service as a psychologist that yields such insights. I very quickly perceive that the nurses are frequently having to deal with mentally retarded adults. Sometimes I think at first but these are children:

“Lorraine -- you are in the wrong place!”

“No!” (anguished howls)

All of these snippets arrive at my ears as I lie in bed contemplating the wall or a book. I see nothing.

Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak: O Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed.[1]

[1] Psalm 6, v. 2, Book of Common Prayer version.

Today's Phone Call

R's Musings — Sun, 25 May 2008 02:26:56 +0000

Mom sounded good today, like her old self. She had a blood transfusion yesterday and it's made all the difference. She's catching up on all of her housecleaning while she's feeling better.

"It's strange what this does to you," she told me. "It makes you wonder why we're doing all of this, getting up every day and doing what we do. People need to love more, forgive everything and stop holding grudges. And have your friends and family around you more. That's what it's all about."

MGUS, not myeloma, right?

tolleyolley — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:20:45 +0000

The latest news is that the knee problem is wear and tear, or early signs of osteoarthritis. No sign of myeloma on the x-ray scan thank goodness. Blood results should be available next week - the hospital works on the basis of 'no news is good news' so if I don't hear anything by next Friday, all should be well. Regardless, I might call them in any case. Next check up is in August and I will be ok about this almost until then but as the time passes since the last tests I get more nervous. The key indicator is almost level on the graph, but not quite - there is a tiny trend upwards, and I have had a couple of scares when there has been a sharp spike which, touch wood, have settled back down. The first time that I had a high reading led the experts to confirm the earlier myeloma diagnosis, but mostly much lower levels since then have delivered the ongoing MGUS (IgA) diagnosis. Bone pains still cause a minor flurry of activity (x rays or MRI or extra blood tests) as this can be a sign of some bone degeneration, typical of myeloma. 50% of plasmacytoma cases tend to lead to myeloma within 5-10 years - I've read different, conflicting stats recently - my consultant told me it was 10 years, so I'm going with that! It has been amazing to read just how much information there is on the net - support organisations, blogs, studies, Wiki pages, etc.

An Update...

R's Musings — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:02:30 +0000

On my mother's condition. As you may know, from my earlier post, The Beginning, my mother was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a blood plasma cancer, in early April.

An excerpt from my journal:

Wednesday, May 14, 2008
RG (my stepfather) called today to tell me of Mom's doctor's appt. today. She's been on the first round of Revlimid, lasting 18 of the 21 days, last Thursday, until she was feeling quite dizzy and they told her to stop. She found out she has myeloma on April 8th and began the drug Revlimid on Monday, April 21st. In those 18 days she lost almost 15 lbs. from loss of apetite. When I saw her over Mother's Day weekend, this past weekend, her skin looked pasty and she didn't seem herself, her jolly self. That's to be expected and understandable, yet very difficult to see, to watch. We got her laughing and joking again while we were there.

Today RG said that they gave her the first of three transfusion-type shots (the other two tomorrow and Friday) to build up her white and red blood cell counts, which have fallen too low, due to the Revlimid. Her blood pressure was very low, also, the lower number (systolic ?) somewhere between 40 & 46, so they had to rush over to her cardiologist's office, who told her to cut back on a drug (lotensin) that she's taken for years to slow her heart rate (because she'd had heart failure) and that should help her blood pressure stabilize. Her oncologist is keeping her off the Revlimid for two weeks and will then determine whether she can go another round or if they need to switch drugs. In the meantime, she has to see a kidney specialist to rule out problems with her kidneys (high potassium level), another cardiologist appt. and bloodwork every Monday to recheck everything.

Mom got on the phone, and cried. She half-whispered that the oncologist told her that most patients live 3 years with myeloma, although the longest living patient is 19 years. I said that maybe it won't be as bad once we face our fears of death. She said she's not afraid of death; she's just got so much to do, too much laundry, too many clothes. She just wants to get rid of all of them. She cried again. I didn't know what to say, so I just listened, and told her that I wished I was there to put my arms around her. This is so difficult for me. I'm holding back the tears in my eyes. I hate for her to be in pain. I wish there was something I could do to help her...

Thursday, May 15, 2008
Spoke w/Mom around 8am. She seems a litle better emotionally today. She also thinks she may have gout in her foot -- it's very painful, but they may be able to give her some pain medication for it.

Things haven't changed much in the past few days. She's taking something for the pain now and seems to be adjusting...

A Broken Foot

Eve — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 06:13:23 +0000

I have a broken foot. This morning (well, yesterday morning, Tuesday) as I was getting into the car to go to work, I tried to adjust my foot in my shoe, and, POP! I definitely felt it break, but I swear I heard it break too.

The doctor was very nice, but informed me that I cannot do any weightbearing whatsoever on my foot for six weeks. Apparently the break is in the "worst possible place" and the healing of this type of break can be particularly difficult. He called it a Jones fracture. It hurts.

Multiple Myeloma First-Line Treatment Study at CORT

bmirtsching — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:57:38 +0000

Treatment options for multiple myeloma have significantly expanded over the past decade with the development of several new, effective combination drug therapy regimens. These agents have been employed as stand-alone therapy for patients who are not candidates for high-dose melphalan and autologous bone marrow transplant (HD-BMT), as induction therapy (before HD-BMT), or for salvage treatment of patients who have failed HD-BMT. Treatment response rates have approached or exceeded 90% in treatment-naive patients, and disease control and survival of patients receiving these therapies has significantly improved.

Velcade (bortezomib) is a proteosome inhibitor with significant activity in myeloma therapy. It has been FDA-approved for treatment of patients who have received at least one prior therapy, based on a large phase III study of Velcade with Dexamethasone. In that study, patients received Velcade at 1.3 mg/m2 on day 1,4,8, and 11 every 21 days, with Dexamethasone 40 mg/d on days 1-4, 9-12 every 21 days. After 8 three-week cycles, responding patients continued to receive Velcade weekly for 3 thiry-five day cycles. The control group received high-dose Dexamethasone (HD-Dex) alone. Cross-over was allowed in this study. Velcade-Dexamethasone (VD) improved response compared to HD-Dex, 38% versus 18%. Even with cross-over from HD-Dex to VD, the survival of patients who had initial VD versus HD-Dex was higher, with one-year survival of 80% versus 66%. This was a 43% reduction in the risk of death at 1year.

A subsequent study of VD versus HD-Dex (SUMMIT) confirmed these findings.

Velcade has been under extensive investigation as part of other drug therapy combinations for myeloma, both in the initial and salvage therapy treatment settings. In the VISTA study presented at the American Society of Hematology meeting in 2007, the Velcade, Melphalan (oral), and prednisone (VMP) combination was compared to standard MP therapy for first-line treatment of myeloma. MP therapy produced complete response (CR) in 4%, and partial response (PR) in 31%. The median duration of response (DOR) and of CR was 13 months each, the median time to progression (TTP) was 16.6 months, and the 2-year survival was 70%. For VMP, the CR was 30%, PR 40%, median DOR 20 months, median duration of CR 24 months, median TTP 24 months, and 2-year survival 83%. Treatment related death occurred in 1% of MP and 2% of VMP patients. Most common toxicities included myelosuppression, fatigue, insomnia, infection, diarrhea, neuropathy, and nausea/vomiting, somewhat greater in the VMP treatment arm.

Thalidomide (Thalomid) is an oral drug with significant activity in myeloma. The mechanism of action of Thalomid is not completely understood. Thalomid and Dexamethasone may increase the risk of thrombosis in myeloma patients. Anticoagulation strategies may reduce that risk. Velcade, Thalomid, and Dexamethasone (VTD) has been compared to TD in a randomized study, the GIMEMA MMY-3006 Study reported at ASH in 2007. The VTD regimen produced CR in 38% (versus 7% for TD) and PR in 63% (versus 25% for TD).

Therefore, for newly diagnosed patients, the inclusion of first-line Velcade with either TD or MP appears to offer significant promise. In the national US study UPFRONT, being conducted at CORT, first-line treatment with VD, VTD, or VMP are being randomly compared for efficacy and long-term outcomes. For further information about this study, please visit the CORT website (www.CORTPA.com) or call to speak with a research coordinator at 972-566-5588.

The Beginning

R's Musings — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 23:45:21 +0000

I called Mom this morning -- no answer on her home phone nor on her cell, so I figured she might be at the doctor's office. I called back shortly after noon; she was just getting home and had RG (my stepfather) tell me about the visit. She has myeloma, a form of cancer in the blood plasma. I think they caught it early. The oncologist says it's not a fast or slow moving cancer; somewhere in the middle. They are giving Mom a drug that's new, called Revlimid; she'll be this doctor's first patient on it, if her insurance covers it. It costs about $7,000/month.

What bad news to get on such a lovely, sunny day. I hope they find a drug that works, that puts this cancer in remission. I don't want to lose my mom. I almost lost her when she had a stroke when I was 25, right before I got married. I prayed as I drove down the road that day, in a tiny yellow sportscar, that she wouldn't leave me. I told her I wasn't ready for her to go. I still feel that way; I'm still not ready. Will I ever be?

Is My Cancer in Remission or Not?

Jason Carpenter — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 18:21:00 +0000

Not long ago I got the good news from my oncologist: The five cycles of cancer treatment I have undergone have pushed me into complete remission. That made me feel great until my next day with the transplant doctor whose care I will be under for the next few months, including my autologous stem cell transplant. “There's still some disease in your blood,” she said pleasantly.

I considered body-slamming my other doctor.

Whom am I supposed to believe? Do they want to see my head explode, or watch me go on a maniacal rampage?

Remission is a tricky thing to define these days. Part of the reason treatment for cancer has gotten so much better in the past 10 years is that tests to detect the various strains of the disease are so sensitive. This makes early detection possible, but it also means late detection is possible. When you’re hunting for the remission decree, you're less likely to get it because there are countless blood tests, and one of them is bound to turn up the tiniest shred of abnormality.

When I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, I was given very specific blood tests to measure the levels of cancer in my blood, things like the M-spike test and a test to measure the "light chains" in my blood. This in addition to the usual blood count and platelet tests.

Well, my light chains went normal a couple of months ago. And my blood counts have been fine since the beginning (my bone marrow actually "faked" being normal by working extra hard to produce additional white blood cells, if you can believe it). But the M-spike actually went up a bit (and by a bit I mean 0.003 percent) so the docs wouldn't give me the satisfaction of telling my friends and family that I was in remission. Until last week.

Brief elation, quickly spoiled by a more cautious doctor.

I’ve decided to let the doctors worry and allow myself the joy of being in complete remission. I know it's the doctor's job to crunch numbers and count cells precisely. I know that it will take near perfection on the part of the medical community to come up with a cure for diseases like mine.

Until then, however, I'm perfectly happy to accept a decree of remission, plus or minus 0.003 percent.

Right to healthcare and asylum seekers

indianhealthfront — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:53:50 +0000

There is little doubt that a healthcare system that is funded by taxes and has adequate checks and balances is the most equitable and just. Britain's healthcare system operating under the NHS is fundamentally based on such a philosophy.

Thus, when someone is denied care in Britain, for whatever reason, it comes as a great shock. The terrible case of 39 year old Ama Sumani who came to Britain in 2001, hoping to be a student, and was diagnosed five years later with multiple myeloma, only to be deported to her native Ghana where she languishes without care has caused outrage among the thinking British public.

The Lancet has scathingly called it an act of "atrocious barbarism" and called upon the medical community to assert its deep distress at what has been done to the ailing woman. That editorial is here. Clearly, without the dialysis facility that she had access to in the UK, and further medical attention, Sumani's chances of making any kind of progress are seriously in jeopardy.

A point to note is the response of many members of the British public with offers of monetary help and even bone marrow donations.

The case of Ama Sumani provides an opportunity to question some of our own trends: no access to life-saving treatment for many poor patients including those with renal failure; attempts by State governments to restrict access to domiciled patients, shunning those coming from geographically contiguous areas in neighbouring States (example, Government General Hospital in Chennai demanding ration cards to filter out those coming from Andhra districts nearby) and the larger trend of transferring healthcare to the for-profit sector both directly (through various forms of insurance) and indirectly by failing to expand state-run tertiary care.

Still Snowing and Racing Downhill

maggiemayday — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 00:06:48 +0000

Over on weblog, I wrote about the snow which has been falling all day. I made a second entry after a call from my SIL. New blog as follows:

It is still snowing out, I had to go redo the driveway or mylarry could never get the Scion in. My back aches, but that's no big deal compared to this afternoon's news.

What a craptacular day, my brother now has multiple myeloma on top of his amyloidosis. The amyloids are protein chains in the major organs, unusual without cancer, but that's what he has. but now, now! Now he has cancer, the blood markers rose to the levels indicating cancer. Myeloma is cancer of the blood plasma cells. Ugly incurable diseases both of them.

When he was diagnosed with the amyloids, they said he would die in six months, they were wrong. Now he has cancer, everything changes. He begins chemo next week, and some other treatment I don't understand. I hate to ask and ask, so I will wait a bit. If the chemo and the drugs work, he has a few years. Real specific, that. If the treatment does not work, he has six to eight months to live.

Peddling for dollars

whdad — Fri, 11 May 2007 20:30:18 +0000

WEST HARTFORD RESIDENTS BIKE

COAST TO COAST FOR A CURE

PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT LEA’S FOUNDATION FOR LEUKEMIA RESEARCH

Siblings Lindsay and Michael Brown are two of six Connecticut students dedicating their summer to raising money and awareness for research on leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma and myeloma.

Through Coast To Coast for a Cure, the students will bike across the United States in an effort to raise $50,000 for the leukemia/lymphoma research at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington and Lea’s Foundation for Leukemia Research.

Lindsay Brown is one of four students from UConn School of Medicine in Farmington, CT participating in Coast to Coast ‘07. She will be joined by classmates Nikki Goulet, Cheyenne Beach and Jared Spilka. The team also includes her brother, Michael Brown, a Bentley College student and Joshua Weinshank, a law student at Western New England College.

Although Canadian by birth, Lindsay Brown has lived in West Hartford since 1994 and graduated from Dartmouth College in 2005 with a degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Lindsay worked as a research assistant in an oncology lab while in college and is eager to continue her dedication to improving cancer treatments by participating in the 2^nd annual Coast-to-Coast Ride for a Cure.

Michael Brown is currently a 3^rd year undergraduate student at Bentley College in Massachusetts. He recently returned from studying in Australia and is very excited by the opportunity to take part in an effort to improve the medical understanding and treatment of Leukemia. Michael is an avid participant and player on numerous sports teams and loves a physical challenge.

The team is inspired by Weinshank’s mother Debi, who was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1998. Thanks to her strong support network and state of the art stem cell treatments, she was able to overcome her battle with cancer and is now a proud eight year survivor.

The team will begin their journey by dipping their wheels in the San Francisco Bay on June 10, 2007. Their two month cross country trek will culminate on August 12, 2007. All are welcome to join the team on their last miles, biking from the UConn Health Center in Farmington, CT to Mystic, CT to dip their wheels on the east coast to complete the journey.

This is the second cross country trip for Coast to Coast for a Cure. Last summer, University of Connecticut medical students Jeremiah Tracy and Benjamin Ristau made the inaugural ride which they dedicated to the memory of Jeremiah’s mother Elizabeth Herman Tracy. Elizabeth was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia known as Chromic Lymphocytic Leukemia. Although she was expected to make a full recovery, Elizabeth did not respond well to treatment and suffered many secondary illnesses. On May 20, 1999, Elizabeth passed away.

Leukemia is a disease of the blood-forming organs, characterized by the proliferation of immature white cells causing a depletion of red cells and platelets. There is no known cure for leukemia and its related cancers of lymphoma, Hodgkin’s Disease and multiple myeloma.

About Lea’s Foundation for Leukemia Research

Lea’s Foundation for Leukemia Research is a Hartford-based nonprofit organization established to fund research projects that will help to find a cure or control for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and myeloma. It was formed in 1998 to honor the memory of Lea Michele Economos, who at the age of 28, fell victim to leukemia. It was her dying wish that others not face the hardships that she encountered. Lea’s Foundation is dedicated to this wish, and works to increase awareness and support research that promised to curtail the suffering of those with leukemia and related blood diseases.

In 2006, Lea’s Foundation committed $1,250,000 to establish a new “state of the art” UConn Health Center treatment facility for patients suffering from malignant-leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's lymphoma, myeloma and non-malignant, sickle cell anemia, Cooley's anemia, and hemophilia, diseases. Once completed, it will be known as Lea's Foundation Center for Hematological Disorders.

For more information about Lea’s Foundation for Leukemia Research, please visit www.leasfoundation.org

About Coast-To-Coast for a Cure

Sponsorship opportunities and trip progress can be found at

http://www.leasfoundation.org/downloads/coastTOcoast_07.pdf