West Caldwell Charity Gives $13,000 To Fight Lung Cancer

Prelude to a Cure, a West Caldwell-based nonprofit dedicated to the support of lung cancer research and awareness, recently presented a $13,000 check to benefit the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

According to a release, the bulk of the funds were raised by Prelude to a Cure’s “Rock Out Lung Cancer” event held on April 12, held at Calandra’s Il Vecchio Café in Caldwell.

“While there have been many encouraging developments in lung cancer research in recent years, the disease remains terribly underfunded,” said Prelude to a Cure founder and West Caldwell resident, Claire Mattern.

“Per death, lung cancer receives a small fraction of the research dollars devoted to breast, prostate or colon cancer,” Mattern stated. “Prelude To A Cure was founded to address the tremendous shortfall in research funding and to support the search for promising new treatments. Our goal is to give lung cancer patients and their families new hope and, ultimately, more time together. Memorial Sloan Kettering is at the vanguard of research into this dreadful disease, and many promising therapeutic approaches to lung cancer have emerged from their laboratories.”

According to a release, the National Cancer Institute has designated MSK as one of only 45 comprehensive cancer centers in the country, underscoring MSK’s multidisciplinary cancer research program, faculty and facilities.

MSK’s staff of close to 13,000 employees includes 995 attending physicians, 2,373 nurses, 149 senior laboratory investigators, and 556 postdoctoral research fellows, research scholars, and research associates.

Funds from Prelude To a Cure have been earmarked to support lung cancer research under the direction of Mark G. Kris.

For more information about Prelude To A Cure or its annual Rock Out Lung Cancer or Woman to Woman events, visit the Prelude website at www.preludetoacure.org, or contact Meg Mullaney at (908) 693-2108, or mullaney.meg@gmail.com.

Photo courtesy of Ann Dassing

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