VICTORY Houston, Inc. Rallies Around Cancer Researchers  - BCM

CHAMPIONING WOMEN’S AND CHILDREN’S HEALTH

Stephanie Morris, Dr. Sujith Joseph, Dr. Benjamin Deneen, Dr. Nabil Ahmed, Judi Johnson, Dr. Bahey Salem, Elizabeth Fulghum and Melissa Hobbs during a visit to Baylor College of Medicine.

VICTORY Houston, Inc. Rallies Around Cancer Researchers 

The members of VICTORY Houston, Inc., an all-volunteer, all-women non-profit dedicated to raising funds for cancer-related initiatives in Greater Houston, understand the devastation that cancer has on a community. To them, it is essential that funds raised in Houston stay local to benefit the people who live in our communities. 

“The overall goal of VICTORY Houston, Inc. is to raise the most money at the least cost and continue to remain devoted to being good stewards of our donors’ hard-earned money and generosity,” said Diane Watson Cain, president of VICTORY Houston, Inc. 

“It is important to the women of the group that all proceeds be disbursed back into the community that has supported us for more than 38 years,” she said. 

For its annual VICTORY Rally Ball in April 2023 in downtown Houston, more than 850 supporters enjoyed an evening of dancing, cocktails, appetizers and a live auction that raised more than $1.65 million.  

Proceeds totaling $450,000 were awarded to three teams of Baylor College of Medicine researchers for pediatric cancer research projects. 

Supported Projects

A less toxic approach to treating pediatric sarcoma  

The immune system is a powerful ally in keeping our bodies healthy. Unfortunately, sometimes it can get confused and attack healthy cells.  

Sujith Joseph, Ph.D., is using the immune system to attack pediatric sarcoma, a cancer of the bones and soft tissues, without targeting healthy cells in young bodies. 

“I’m so grateful to VICTORY Houston, Inc. and its support of my research,” Dr. Joseph said. “Their funding is helping me develop a new type of cell therapy that shows promise in fighting sarcoma while sparing kids some of the harmful side-effects that come with this treatment. VICTORY is making a real difference in these young lives.”  

Dr. Joseph’s work can be a crucial step in developing a more effective and less toxic type of immunotherapy for young patients. 

Teaching the body to fight leukemia  

Much progress has been made in treating childhood leukemia, but standard treatment like chemotherapy doesn’t work for everyone. Bahey Salem, M.D., and Nabil Ahmed, M.D., are working to teach patients’ immune cells to recognize cancer as dangerous and destroy leukemia. 

Drs. Salem and Ahmed alter a patient’s immune cells in the lab by adding three homing devices to their cell surfaces. When the new immune cells are given back to the patient, the homing devices find one of three matching beacons on leukemia cells and eliminate them. This advancement can have far-reaching effects for treating pediatric leukemia and helping children survive and thrive. 

Disrupting the chatter of brain cancer  

Tumor cells need help to grow. They send chemical messages to otherwise healthy surrounding cells, recruiting them to aid in a cancer’s growth. Shutting down these messages may be a strategy to slow the growth of a dangerous form of brain cancer.  

Benjamin Deneen, Ph.D., is working to solve some of the mysteries of ependymoma, a type of brain cancer common in children. His team has found that brain cancer cells communicate with other brain cells called neurons, conversations that Dr. Deneen believes help the brain tumor cells survive as the neurons deliver messages that make nutrients and blood available to the cancer. His team’s goal is to find how to stop the chatter and possibly offer a new way to silence pediatric brain cancer. 

Professor 
Section of Hematology-Oncology
Department of Pediatrics   


Professor
Department of Neurosurgery

Co-Director
Center for Cancer Neuroscience

Dr. Russell J. and Marian K. Blattner Chair


Assistant Professor
Section of Hematology-Oncology
Department of Pediatrics   


Associate Professor
Section of Hematology-Oncology
Department of Pediatrics   

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