Hockey Mom Foundation
Hockey Mom Foundation Grant Recipients
We celebrated Mother's Day 2021 by presenting a $10,000 grant to Roswell Park Alliance Foundation to help advance the testing of a promising vaccine called SurVax M in glioblastoma patients.
In 2015, the HMF helped fund phase I clinical study of SurVax M, and the great majority of the patients who received all doses of the vaccine – all of whom had failed standard therapy – survived longer than a year. In some cases, patients are still alive today, more than 5 years after they started treatment with SurVaxM. “In a disease where few survive beyond eight months, that’s an important signal,” said Dr. Fenstermaker, vaccine pioneer.
Roswell is now well into the first step of the phase II clinical trial, with SurVaxM undergoing testing in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma brain tumors. Now that this step has proven both successful and safe, it’s time for the critical second step in this phase, a larger randomized trial that will be available to patients at 20 other cancer centers across the country. The HMF is thrilled to grant Roswell Park with additional funds to further this next step.
The HMF granted $10,000 to Cleveland Clinic Gynecologic Oncology Research Program on December 12, 2019
Gynecologic cancers, including endometrial and ovarian cancers, are a leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women. The ability of gynecologic tumors to adapt to and evade treatment is a major factor contributing to the poor outcomes that many patients face. The goal of the Cleveland Clinic Gynecologic Oncology Research Program is to explore possible causes of, and treatments for, a range of gynecologic cancers and identify breakthroughs to overcome resistance to current treatment strategies, while also focusing on the advances most needed by patients, now.
On Friday, April 12th, 2019 the Hockey Mom Foundation presented $10,000 to Dr. Kara Kelly, Chair of the Department of Pediatric Oncology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, NY.
We are pleased to support Roswell's Phase 1 study of the use of the SurVaxM vaccine in pediatric patients with relapsed or refractory Medulloblastoma or High Grade Glioma (HGG). This trial is expected to be opened by June 2019, and will be offered at numerous children’s hospitals across the country.
On April 12th, 2018 the Hockey Mom Foundation granted $10,000 to Dr. Charis Eng's breast cancer research at Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute. We are thrilled to support her groundbreaking work using nanoparticles to change the behavior of tumor microbes and treat breast cancer.
It was inspiring to hear Dr. Eng and her team explain how a relatively small financial contribution towards very promising research “builds the book” to then justify the larger grants from the NIH and other sources. Learn more about the project below.
Board members & volunteers pause for photo with
project scientist, Dr. Ritika Jaini
Researchers are asking: What if an imbalance in our microbiome, the trillions of bacteria that live in and on our bodies, is related to our likelihood of developing cancer? Most research has been done on the “gut” microbiome, or bacteria in the digestive tract, although researchers have long suspected that a microbiome exists within breast tissue and plays a role in breast cancer. Researchers at Cleveland Clinic Genomic Medicine Institute have taken the first step toward understanding the composition of the bacteria in breast cancer by uncovering distinct microbial differences in healthy and cancerous breast tissue. Early data suggests that the use of loaded nanoparticles to deliver drugs directly to the site could be a viable treatment option to create balance in the microbiome and, ultimately, stunt tumor progression. This would decrease the harmful side effects caused by traditional cancer treatments.
Buffalo, N.Y.'s soon to open John R. Oishei Children's Hospital Hematology and Oncology Unit was the recipient of our April 21, 2017 $5,000 Hockey Mom Foundation Grant.
Dr. Kara Kelly and her pediatric oncology team will bring state of the art cancer care to children and their families in this new, world class facility.
On August 30, 2016, Hockey Mom Foundation Board Members and Volunteers presented a $5,000 donation to the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute Patient Support Services.
Focusing on the "softer side" of patient care, this patient and care giver focused program provides free services including art and music therapy, massage, spa treatments, a wig boutique, yoga, mentoring, and a patient/family resource center.
HOCKEY MOM FOUNDATION MAKES $5,000 DONATION TO ROSWELL PARK CANCER INSTITUTE TO SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT OF BRAIN CANCER VACCINE
Buffalo, NY—Oct. 20, 2015—A charitable foundation established earlier this year and inspired by a group of Buffalo hockey moms has made its first donation to support the development of a brain cancer vaccine at Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
Representatives of the newly formed Hockey Mom Foundation presented a $5,000 check to Roswell Park on Oct. 19, 2015, in memory of one of the Buffalo hockey moms who died from brain cancer. Every year, more than 20,000 adults are diagnosed with brain cancer, and about 15,320 people die from the disease. (read more)