The Foundation Gives Its First Grant

Saratoga, CA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 12/14/2010 -- The Sam Butler Callahan Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to finding a cure for Ewing’s sarcoma, is pleased to announce that it has given its first grant to The University of Texas MD Anderson Children’s Cancer Hospital. The $20,000 grant will go toward furthering MD Anderson Children’s Cancer Hospital’s groundbreaking research and treatment of Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer that strikes children and adolescents.

Jeanne Butler, Executive Director of the Foundation, presented the grant in person to Dr. Pete Anderson, a Curtis Distinguished professor at the Children’s Cancer Hospital in Houston, Texas and Dr. Vivek Subbiah, pediatric hematology/oncology fellow at the hospital.

“We chose MD Anderson as the recipient of our first grant, because of the extraordinary Ewing’s sarcoma research and treatment that Dr. Pete Anderson and Dr. Vivek Subbiah are doing,” said Butler. “We are grateful for their innovative approach to treating Ewing’s sarcoma, as well as supporting patients and their families to help them live as normal a life as possible.”

“Funding is essential as we investigate new and better treatments for metastatic Ewing’s sarcoma,” said Dr. Anderson. “Our current research is studying the biological processes that affect metastatic Ewing’s sarcoma. As we come to understand these processes we can better develop targeted therapies such as insulin-like-growth-factor-1-receptor inhibitors and other molecules targeted to influence those processes and improve survival for our patients.”

“I chose to focus on Ewing’s sarcoma because it affects children, adolescents and young adults. The results of chemotherapy have remained unchanged for many years and I really felt we needed more tools and improved treatment to give these young people a higher survival rate,” added Dr. Anderson.

About the Sam Butler Callahan Foundation
The Sam Butler Callahan Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2009 by Sam Callahan and his aunt Jeanne Butler. The Foundation provides a social community of support and financial resources to Ewing’s sarcoma patients and their families. The Foundation also exists to increase public awareness and fund research for Ewing’s sarcoma, the “forgotten youth cancer.” Ewing’s sarcoma occurs in the bone or the soft tissue close to the bone, most often in adolescents between the ages of 10 and 20. It is the second most common malignant bone tumor in children and adolescents and is devastating to youths around the world. Yet, childhood cancer is the most under-funded of all cancers in the world, and research funding for Ewing’s sarcoma in particular is almost non-existent. Visit http://www.SamsTeam.org and http://www.SamCallahanFoundation.org for more information.

About MD Anderson
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston ranks as one of the world’s most respected centers focused on cancer patient care, research, education and prevention. MD Anderson is one of only 40 comprehensive cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute. For seven of the past nine years, including 2010, MD Anderson has ranked No. 1 in cancer care in “America’s Best Hospitals,” a survey published annually in U.S. News & World Report.

About MD Anderson Children’s Cancer Hospital
The University of Texas MD Anderson Children’s Cancer Hospital has been serving children, adolescents and young adults for more than 65 years. In addition to the groundbreaking research and quality of treatment available to pediatric patients, the nationally ranked Children’s Cancer Hospital provides comprehensive programs that help children lead more normal lives during and after treatment.

MD Anderson Children’s Cancer Hospital provides patients with the most advanced treatments available for osteosarcoma and Ewing’s sarcoma. Within a family-centered environment, patients are cared for by a team of pediatric oncologists, orthopedic surgical oncologists and support specialists who specialize in pediatric sarcomas. Most recently, research by Children’s Cancer Hospital experts led to the development of the first therapy in more than 20 years to improve the long-term survival of these patients.