Friends In Pink

Thank you to everyone who has continued to support us! Keep those SHOPRITE tapes coming! PLEASE!

A Request from Rise Above - BREAST CANCER SURVIVORS — I REALLY NEED YOUR HELP! 💗
I’m a breast cancer survivor and I’m collecting research for Rise Above Breast Cancer, a nonprofit focused on supporting women during and after breast cancer.
I’m trying to hear from as many survivors as possible - especially local- so I can better understand what women REALLY need — what’s been hard, what’s been missing, and what could improve health and quality of life after breast cancer.
Whether you were diagnosed recently or 20+ years ago, I want to hear from YOU.
If you could take a few minutes to fill out this survey, I’d be incredibly grateful! 💗
👉 https://forms.gle/mZgCXdyjnktTw3Qq9
And PLEASE help me get this in front of more survivors! Share it, send it to a friend, or tag someone who can help spread the word. The more survivors I can hear from, the more useful this research can be in helping women moving forward. 💗

Breast Cancer Support | Rise Above Breast Cancer A community for Breast Cancer Survivors created by Cancer Exercise Specialists offering support, encouragement, resources & all things health and fitness!

www.inquirer.com/health/radiation-cancer-treatment-flash-proton-therapy-penn-clinical-trial-20260913.html?query=Penn clinical trial

Penn trial tests ultrafast form of radiation aimed at reducing cancer treatment side effects The trial marks the first time the technology, conformal FLASH proton therapy, is being tested in humans. The hope, ultimately, is to preserve quality of life in patients by reducing side effects.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2026/09/04/alcohol-related-cancer-deaths-doubled-liver-study/91607446007/

Alcohol-related cancer deaths have doubled, and 1 drink could increase risk Alcohol-related cancer deaths are rising − and it's not just the liver being impacted by alcohol consumption, according to a new study.

Dispatch Bio launches its first clinical trial to develop a universal treatment for solid cancers A University of Pennsylvania biotech spinout recently launched its first clinical trial of an experimental cancer treatment for hard-to-treat solid tumors.

Its approach builds upon groundbreaking work harnessing the body’s immune system to fight cancer.

Based in Philadelphia and San Francisco, the company, Dispatch Bio, launched a year ago with CAR-T pioneer and Penn researcher Carl June as a scientific co-founder and $216 million in funding from private investors.

The company aims to succeed where CAR-T, an immunotherapy that genetically modifies a patient’s immune cells to recognize and attack cancer, has struggled.

Although CAR-T has revolutionized the treatment of blood cancers, scientists have yet to replicate that success in solid tumors. By painting a target on tumors and revving up the immune system, Dispatch believes its platform could.

It dosed its first patient earlier this month.

“With one approach, we are addressing the two main challenges that we have faced over the last decade or so,” said Mauro Avanzi, the chief medical officer of Dispatch.

Success is not guaranteed. Most exploratory scientific efforts do not advance to the point where they are found safe and effective in humans. Even if the results are promising, it could take years before a potential new treatment becomes widely available.

Dispatch’s first clinical trial focuses on advanced gastrointestinal cancers, including cancers of the stomach, esophagus, and colon. The company also announced a clinical trial earlier this year in China that has not yet started dosing patients.

If the treatment turns out to be safe and effective, Dispatch hopes to expand to other solid tumor types with significant unmet need.

“As many patients as we can deliver that for, we will keep striving to do,” said Lex Johnson, Dispatch’s co-founder and chief platform officer.

Solid cancers are notoriously difficult to treat with immunotherapy for two main reasons: they’re hard to target, and they’re good at suppressing the immune system.

To attack a cancer cell, you need to be able to find it. Sometimes cancer cells have more unique identifiable elements on the outside, but other times they don’t. Imagine trying to identify someone when all you know is that they’re wearing jeans.

Many of the proteins found on solid cancer cells are also present in healthy tissue, making them potentially risky targets.

Solid tumors are also good at building an environment around them that blocks and suppresses the immune system. Think of it like a protective shield.

“They prevent your immune system from recognizing and clearing aberrant cells,” Johnson said, referring to cancer cells.

» READ MORE: After a Philadelphia cancer patient ran out of options, a novel T-cell therapy at Rutgers kept her alive

Dispatch Bio’s signature treatment — called the Flare platform — is designed to overcome both of these challenges by tagging cancer cells with a unique target and boosting the immune system.

The strategy revolves around a virus that, when injected intravenously, will traverse the body in search of tumor cells. Once the virus finds its target, it’ll take up residence inside the cell and tag it with a target protein called “the Flare.”

“You can create that Flare protein to be something that is not present on healthy tissue throughout the body,” Johnson said.

In colon cancer, for example, they would use a protein that is not present on any healthy colon cell, to avoid toxicity.

At the same time, the Flare platform secretes chemical signals to re-engineer and reset the environment around the tumor. This enables the immune system to better attack the tumor.

“It is a Trojan horse,” Avanzi said, describing the virus.

When a tagged cancer cell is destroyed, it goes on to release thousands more viral particles carrying the Flare. That chain reaction helps spread the therapy’s effect across multiple sites.

In animal studies, the platform has been able to completely clear out tumors without off-target effects or toxicity.

But results in animals are often difficult to replicate in people, and the ongoing clinical trial is the first time the platform is being used in humans.
The trial

If the virus successfully paints cancer cells with the target, CAR-T cells can then find and clear them. (CAR-T therapy uses what’s called a chimeric antigen receptor, a protein that recognizes a cell as cancer based on what’s on the outside of the cell.)

The first phase of the trial involves escalating the dose of the virus alongside a standard dose of an approved CAR-T therapy to figure out the ideal regimen.

Once Dispatch determines the safest dose of the virus, they’ll move into the dose expansion phase, where they test that dose in a bigger group of patients.

“We are really trying to optimize the virus,” Avanzi said.

There is no expected timeline yet for the trial.

Dispatch is actively enrolling patients at City of Hope in California and the University of Cincinnati, and is in the process of activating four or five additional sites. They plan to open a site in Philadelphia, too.

https://reader.inquirer.com/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=f742d0b8-d298-4199-b7ff-ef5ba1ece32b&share=true&appcode=PHLINQ

Cancer survivors find strength on water Cancer survivors find strength on water

Thank you to everyone who has dropped off and/or mailed their Shoprite Receipts. We appreciate you! We need your continued help as we're still collecting...........
Save your Shoprite receipts for us! Brown's Shoprite Save A Tape Program will reimburse a small percentage of the tapes we turn in! (every little bit helps us to continue to raise funds to help those dealing with cancer) Shoprite will accept receipts from any of their 12 Shoprite Stores and 2 Fresh Grocers. You can mail them to us at Friends In Pink, P.O. Box 4618, Philadelphia, PA 19127 - if you're in Roxborough/Manayunk drop off in the mailbox at 536 Overlook Road, 19128 or email us at [email protected] to arrange for us to pick up from you.
• Aramingo, PA ( #482)
• Bensalem, PA (Store #428)
• Bridge & Harbison, PA ( #495)
• Brooklawn, NJ (Store #471)
• Cheltenham, PA (Store #426)
• Fairless Hills, PA (Store #427)
• Fox Street, PA (Store #430)
• Island Avenue, PA (Store #423)
• Mullica Hill, NJ ( #496)
• Oregon Avenue, PA (Store #420)
• Parkside, PA (Store #419)
• Roxborough, PA (Store #519)
also accept receipts from our 2 Fresh Grocers Stores:
• The Fresh Grocer of Wyncote, PA (Store #415)
• The Fresh Grocer of Monument Road, PA (Store #456
Thank you to everyone who has been saving these for us! You're helping us to continue to assist those fighting cancer! FriendsInPink.org

Today is National Cancer Survivors Day and we're celebrating life!

Today is National Cancer Survivors Day. And we’re celebrating life! Today – June 1 – is National Cancer Survivors Day® 2025. Welcome to the celebration! Cancer survivors and supporters around the world are celebrating.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DZIDp73vd5Q/?hl=en

A new Penn Medicine study of more than 110,000 women found that those who took GLP-1 medications were about 30% less likely to develop breast cancer than those who did not. Presented yesterday at the 2026 @ascocancer Annual Meeting by Dr. Elizabeth McDonald, the research opens exciting new doors. While observational, the data suggests these widely used medications might help inhibit tumor growth by reducing systemic inflammation and targeting cancer pathways. “Ultimately, we want to find better options to prevent breast cancer,” says Dr. McDonald. “We’d love to see the same gains in prevention that we’ve seen in survival rates.” Up next: Our researchers are actively working to launch a multisite clinical trial to formally test GLP-1s for breast cancer prevention in high-risk individuals.