This article is sponsored by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the world’s largest voluntary health agency dedicated to finding cures for leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and other blood cancers. To learn more visit lls.org.
While there are still no means of preventing or screening for blood cancers, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is focused on finding cures and ensuring access to treatments for blood cancer patients. Since 1949, LLC has funded leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma research and provided education and parent services.
Thanks to research, survival rates for patients with many blood cancers have doubled, tripled and even quadrupled since 1960. Yet, despite these advances, about half of patients with a blood cancer still do not survive, which is why more funding is needed to bring better therapies to patients, and faster.
To date, LLS has invested more than $875 million in research to advance therapies and save lives. LLS research grants have funded many breakthroughs, including targeted therapies and immunotherapies. Sustained research investments are fueling an explosion of innovative science and clinical successes. Once unimaginable, new safe and effective treatments are saving lives today.
These medical advances are also far-reaching. Between 2000 and 2012, almost half of the cancer drugs newly approved by the FDA were developed first for blood cancer patients, and many of these were advanced with funding from LLS. These advances are making serious ripples through the cancer community, with therapies also helping patients with other cancers and serious diseases.
LLS supports the world’s best and brightest academic researchers to address these urgent, unmet needs, providing funding across the continuum from basic and translational research through clinical trials, from bench to bedside. By recognizing that therapies were not getting to patients fast enough, LLS created the Therapy Acceleration Program (TAP), supporting applied research and forging collaborations with biotechnology companies to help bridge the gap between academic discovery and successful drug development.
Beyond research and drug development, LLS is also the leading source of free blood cancer information, education and support for patients, survivors, families and healthcare professionals. In North America, their co-pay assistance program has awarded more than $120 million to date to help eligible blood cancer patients afford health-insurance premiums and prescription drug co-pays.
With 61 chapters across the United States and Canada, LLS is the voice of blood cancer patients and their families, advocating for policies that accelerate the approval of new treatments and ensure access to quality, affordable and coordinated care. Click here to learn more.
