Cancer Research Institute Executive Summary

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The following report details the problems, solutions, benefits, and opportunities for improvement of the Cancer Research Institute (CRI). CRI is a non-profit organization that supports immunotherapy research and treatment with the goal of controlling and even curing various types of cancer. Charity Navigator, a website dedicated to analyzing and reviewing nonprofit organizations, gives CRI top grades regarding financial responsibility, accountability, and transparency. CRI provides the public with detailed accounts of their financial history (Charity Navigator, 2017). The following chart exhibits a breakdown of the organizations expenditure (Program Expenses constitute the charity’s total expenses spent on the programs and services it delivers.) …show more content…

Having much desire for life and longing to spend more time with her grandchildren, she began a tough battle with cancer. After a year of various treatments, her doctor told her that there was nothing else that he could do and recommended that she consider clinical trials. Devastated, but not willing to admit defeat, Vanessa’s family began their search for other treatment options. Eventually, her husband spotted a clinical trial involving immunotherapy and Vanessa, as it turned out, qualified to receive the treatment. Vanessa’s own immune system was harnessed to attack the cancer from within and her tumors have shrunk over 66% since then. Vanessa is now sixty-four years old and continues to fight cancer with the only treatment that has helped her and it is thanks, in part, to this immunotherapy clinical trial (Henig, …show more content…

In 1996, immunotherapy research led to clinical trials that paved the way for an FDA approved treatment called Yervoy. This treatment was the first shown to “extend the lives of patients with advanced melanoma.” Another form of treatment called Chimeric Antigen Receptor Technology was “made possible by decades of research by CRI scientists.” This type of therapy has achieved “complete responses in 90% of patients with leukemia (Cancer Research Institute, 2018).” Carl June, who works for the University of Pennsylvania, developed an FDA approved treatment for fighting leukemia. This immunotherapy treatment consists of “extracting a patient’s own white blood cells, genetically reprogramming them to attack the blood cancer,” and putting them back into the body to fight off the cancer for years (Steinberg, 2017). “Dr. June is currently leading a clinical trial testing his T cell therapy in pancreatic cancer patients. The trial is funded (in part) by Cancer Research Institute and the Lustgarten Foundation. (Cancer Research Institute,

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