P E N N’S
Creating Knowledge, Providing Hope
VOLUME 4
ISSUE 1
WINTER 2007
The Stem Cell Debate: Clarifying the
Issues and New Breakthroughs
The study of embryonic stem
cells is politically charged, but is
only a part of the medical discovery
picture. Throughout the controversary, Penn has remained focused on
adult stem cells to further treatment
advances.
Stem cells, first discovered by
scientists in the early 1960s, have
been used to treat leukemia and other
blood cancers for decades. It was not
until 1998, when developmental
biologist and Penn Alumnus James
Thomson and fellow researchers at
the University of Wisconsin at
Madison derived the first embryonic
stem cell lines from frozen human
embryos, that the highly contentious
ethical and political debate surrounding the use of stem cells ignited.
Embryonic stem cells are harvested from the inner cell mass of the
early-stage embryo, or blastocyst, at
about five days old in a process that
destroys the embryo. Adult stem
cells tend to give rise to cells more
characteristic of their respective host
tissue. So, an adult stem cell from
the brain can become a neural cell,
IN THIS ISSUE...
Message from the Director
Pg. 2
Patient Profile
Pg. 2
AFCRI Update
Pg. 3
Research Update
Pg. 4
Faculty Highlights & Events
Pg. 5
Spotlight: Patient Support Groups Pg. 6
but not a bone or liver cell. Current
studies using adult stem cells are
giving promise that they may in fact
have more potential to be manipulated than previously thought.
Xiaowei (George) Xu, M.D.,
Ph.D., Assistant Professor of
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
at the University of Pennsylvania
School of Medicine and fellow
researchers have successfully isolated
a new source of adult stem cells that
appears to have the potential to differentiate into several cell types.
“We are very excited about this new
source of adult stem cells that has the
potential for a variety of applications… Although we are just at the
start of this research, our findings
suggest that human hair follicles may
provide an accessible, individualized
source of stem cells,” says Xu.
While it had been thought that
adult stem cells are generally limited
to differentiating into different cell
types of their tissue of origin, discoveries like those of Xu suggest that
adult stem cells do exhibit some level
of plasticity and can be engineered to
differentiate into a variety of cell
types. There is no ethical debate
surrounding the use of adult stem
cells. If adult stem cells prove to
be able to have more plasticity, this
would enable researchers to overcome the obstacles surrounding
the use of embryonic stem cells
and allow them to move forward
with their research at a higher rate
of success and potentially discover
treatments and cures for any number
of diseases. Like the embryonic stem
cell, adult stem cells could theoretically treat a wider range of diseases
– without the obstacles created by the
moral and political debate
involving the definition and rights
of a fetus.
With limited federal funding for
stem cell research, the United States,
usually a leader in the field of biomedical research, has yet to establish
itself within the field of stem cell
research. Glen Gaulton, Ph.D as
Executive Vice Dean and Chief
Scientific Officer for the School of
Medicine at the University of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine
says, “There isn’t any one single
‘Go to’ place for stem cells yet.
Everybody is jogging. No one is
running.”
The University of Pennsylvania,
being at the forefront of biomedical
research, is thinking ahead and is in
the final stages of establishing a
center for research. The center will
focus on the field of regenerative
medicine, including gene therapy and
other cell-based therapies, particularly stem cells. This will be a collaborative effort across the University
bringing together a myriad of specialists across many disciplines.
With such a unique institution in
place, the University will be able to
fuel world-class research in the stem
cell field and launch new therapies in
a number of specific diseases, cancer
being the best example.
A Message from the
It has been a season of transition and
growth at Penn’s
Abramson Cancer
Center. In the past few
months, I was honored
to be appointed as the
Director of the
Craig Thompson, M.D. Abramson Cancer
Center after serving as
the Deputy Director for seven years. In
my career, I have been dedicated to finding new approaches to cancer research
and patient care, and I am excited about
the opportunities ahead in this field and
my new role.
PATIENT
Tim Wilmott, The Power of
Awareness and Prevention
In response to this tragedy, his
physician considered removing his
pancreas to guarantee he would not get
the same type of cancer. Instead of that
very invasive procedure, Tim came to
Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center where
his family had received treatment and
he knew the physicians to be “compassionate, kind, and an invaluable
resource.”
Penn’s Abramson Report will be
one of many ways that I will keep you
and all of the Abramson Cancer Center
friends appraised of Penn’s progress in
cancer care.
One relatively new area of medical
discovery is stem cell research. While
the debate continues around kitchen
tables and the halls of Congress, at the
University of Pennsylvania we are thinking ahead and focused on adult stem cell
research to further treatment advances.
Scientists are already making breakthroughs in this area of cancer research
and Penn is in the final stages of creating a research center that will focus on
the field of regenerative medicine and
gene therapy, particularly stem cells.
Other articles in this edition of
Penn’s Abramson Report describe the
comfort patients and survivors offer to
each other through forums such as
monthly support groups. The power of
this ‘connectedness’ is demonstrated by
the story of Tom Yohe, a six-year Head
and Neck Cancer survivor. We also
illustrate the importance of aggressive
screening with our profile of Tim
Wilmott, whose family has been devastated by Gastrointestinal Cancers.
I am grateful for the support shown
to me in my first few months as Director
by friends, faculty, and staff. I look forward to a long relationship with the
Abramson Cancer Center’s many friends
who, like you, support our efforts
through their philanthropy – your generosity makes our innovations in cancer
research and patient care possible.
2
Craig B. Thompson, M.D.
Tim Wilmott is a Wharton graduate
who has become a successful businessman with a loving wife and young
daughter. On the surface, he appears to
have everything. But Tim lives with
the knowledge that he may have a
genetic predisposition to developing
gastrointestinal cancer – a type of
cancer that is usually diagnosed from
symptoms once it has already progressed past effective treatment.
Tim and his family have been
devastated by this type of cancer. His
father was diagnosed with esophageal
cancer in 1998. Then, his mother
passed away from pancreatic cancer in
2000. And three years ago, his younger
brother John, passed away at the age of
44 from pancreatic cancer. Other
extended family members on his mother’s side also passed away from the
same disease.
Tim consulted with Michael
Kochman, M.D., a leader in the field of
pancreatic imaging whose work is
advancing new surgical treatment
options. Tim and his brother, Matt,
decided to participate in the Abramson
Cancer Center’s High-Risk GI Cancer
Screening and Evaluation Program. He
first had genetic testing with Anil
Rustgi, M.D., and now, each year, Tim
travels from his home in Las Vegas to
come to Penn and undergo an endoscopic ultrasound with Dr. Kochman as
part of an aggressive screening program.
Tim’s motivation for taking part
in the program is larger than his own
personal welfare. He is committed to
supporting Dr. Kochman’s research to
advance early detection methods. Tim
believes this effort will increase survival rates among future GI cancer
patients and in the long-term, his
daughter, nieces and nephews can be
saved from having the same fear of
watching loved ones pass away from
this form of cancer.
“Tribbles” Protein Implicated
in both Common and
Aggressive Leukemia
For those of you who remember
Tribbles as the furry little creatures
who took over the starship Enterprise
in the original Star Trek series, you
might think the following is pure
science fiction. However, here at the
Abramson Cancer Center of the
University of Pennsylvania, Warren
Pear, M.D., Ph.D., and his laboratory
team, have identified a new oncogene
which they have affectionately named
Tribbles. Dr. Pear, Associate
Professor of Pathology and
Laboratory Medicine, has linked for
the first time this new protein,
Tribbles (Trib-2), to acute myelogenous leukemia (AML).
This discovery is very good news
for people who suffer with AML.
AML is a malignancy that arises in
white blood cells and develops when
there is a defect in immature immune
cells in the bone marrow. AML is the
most common type of leukemia in
adults, with an estimated 10,100 new
cases reported each year.
This is a new protein to human
cancer and has a specific and overwhelming effect when expressed in
hematopoietic stem cells, the cell
type that gives rise to all elements of
the blood. Dr. Pear, a senior investigator at the Abramson Family Cancer
Research Institute along with, first
author and postdoctoral fellow Karen
Keeshan, Ph.D., and colleagues
found Tribbles by chance when looking for the molecular partners of
another protein called Notch.
Specifically, the Tribbles protein
degrades other proteins in the blood
which act as tumor suppressors. Once
these tumor suppressors or
“guardians” have been destroyed, the
pathway is open for this type of
leukemia to develop. The surprise in
the discovery was that all the mice
engineered to express Tribbles
(Trib-2) in hematopoietic stem
cells developed AML.
Dr. Pear and his colleagues knew
from fruit fly studies that Tribbles
was linked to cell growth and cellfate determination and is closely
related to the Tribbles gene in mammals. The Pear lab worked with
colleagues in Holland to test more
than 200 patients with AML. All of
these patients expressed a higher
lever of Trib-2 in their blood. For the
first time, this linked Trib-2 to the
human cancer, AML. These results
were recently published in the periodical, Cancer Cell.
The next steps for the Pear laboratory will be to identify the process
whereby Tribbles actually degrades
the “good proteins” in the blood. It
will be like “going fishing” with
Tribbles to see which tumor suppressors it destroys and how it destroys it
them. Then Dr. Pear and his team can
begin to find different mechanisms to
block its function.
Penn: Partner in
Initiatives to
Prevent Lung
Cancer
As part of an international effort
launched to potentially revolutionize
the prevention and management of
lung cancer, Penn’s Abramson
Cancer Center has joined 11 leading
research institutions to create a
database for scientists. The goal of
this global collaboration is to deepen the understanding of lung cancer
at its earliest, most treatable stages.
To date, understanding how precancerous conditions become cancerous
has been difficult because no single
institution was able to gather data
from enough patients or to follow
patients for a sufficient period of
time to provide clinically relevant
answers.
Now, principal investigators
from these 11 centers, including
Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center,
will contribute patient information
to this registry to answer critical
questions and focus on the goal to
develop a diagnostic test to screen
for changes and investigate genetic
biomarkers that may lead to or
predict lung cancer.
Daniel Sterman, M.D., Director
of Interventional Pulmonology, and
Anil Vachani, M.D., both from the
Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and
Critical Care at the University of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine,
will head the registry at the
Abramson Cancer Center.
Dr. Vachani said “The information on high-risk individuals
screened at the Abramson Cancer
Center will play a critical partnership role in achieving the registry’s
goals.” He added, “With the knowledge we gain through this registry,
we’ll be able to intervene with
high-risk patients before they develop clinically evident lung cancer.”
3
Cancer Stem Cells:
Discovering New Therapies
Stem cells – especially
cancer stem cells – are seen as
a potentially revolutionary source
of information about how organ
tissues develop and as a potential
source of treatment.
Two important characteristics
distinguish stem cells from other
types of cells. First, they are
unspecialized and renew themselves through cell division.
Second, under certain physiologic or experimental conditions,
they can be induced to become
cells with special functions such
as the beating cells of the heart
muscle or the insulin-producing
cells of the pancreas.
Serving as a sort of repair
system for the body, stem cells
can theoretically divide without
limit and replenish other cells in
the body. When a stem cell
divides, each new cell has the
potential to either remain a stem
cell or become another type of
cell with a more specialized
function, such as a muscle cell,
a red blood cell, or a brain cell.
Dr. Stephen Emerson, the
Francis C. Wood Professor of
Medicine, chief of the Division
of Hematology-Oncology, and
Associate Director of the clinical
research for Penn’s Abramson
Cancer Center, calls stem-cell
biology the “Rosetta Stone” of
modern health and disease treatment. “Discovering the language
of stem cells, and the secrets of
its translation, will make clear
4
pathway may one day lead to
new treatments for such blood
diseases as leukemia, as well
as a better understanding of
how HSCs work in the context
of bone-marrow and peripheralstem-cell transplantation.
much that has been previously
undecipherable.”
Although there are
still many unknowns
in the field of cancer
stem cell research,
there have already
been a number
of potentially
ground-breaking
discoveries made
by Penn scientists.
Although there are still many
unknowns in the field of cancer
stem cell research, there have
already been a number of potentially ground-breaking discoveries made by Penn scientists.
“We want to figure out how
this process is normally regulated
in the body, so that we can learn
to control it for therapeutic purposes,” explains Emerson. “We
might want to shift the balance
so that we can grow more stem
cells, for those who need them.
Conversely, for patients in whom
this process has gone awry, such
as acute leukemia, we might
block the regulatory gene to shift
the balance of self-renewal versus differentiation so that all the
immature, leukemic cells differentiate and die.”
NF-Ya protein
Dr. Emerson and his
team of researchers recently
discovered a protein called
NF-Ya that activates several
genes known to regulate the
development of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), or
blood producing stem cells,
in bone marrow. His laboratory wants to find a way
to control the directives that
NF-Ya issues to its stem cell
subjects, forcing them either
to self-renew or to differentiate into daughter cells.
Knowing the details of this
Stephen Emerson, M.D., Ph.D., and his colleagues are
making advances in the field of cancer stem cell research
NEW
ABRAMSON CANCER CENTER
FACULTY
The Abramson Cancer Center is pleased to welcome the following individuals to Penn as new faculty members, who each bring a wealth of experience
and genuine enthusiasm to their cancer research and patient care.
Carol Kaplan, M.D., has joined the Penn faculty as an
Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, after completing a hematology/oncology fellowship at Penn.
As a fellow, she focused on breast cancer clinical
trials, including development of a trial using Avastin
and Abraxane™ to treat metastatic breast cancer
patients. While an undergraduate at Duke University,
Dr. Kaplan was a Howard Hughes fellow in hematology and held
research positions at the National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences. She then received her medical degree from Washington
University in St. Louis.
Alison Loren, M.D., MSCE, has been appointed to the
Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplant program at
Penn as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Loren received her
bachelor’s degree cum laude from Harvard University
and medical degree from Washington University in
St. Louis. She also has a master’s degree in clinical
epidemiology from Penn where she completed an
internship and residency in internal medicine, and a fellowship in
hematology/oncology as well as clinical epidemiology and biostatistics.
In addition to her clinical practice, Dr. Loren is actively researching
bone marrow transplantation techniques to improve outcomes.
Jason G. Newman, M.D., has brought his specialty with
Head and Neck Cancer, and his expertise in minimally
invasive and endoscopic cranial base surgery, to Penn
as an Assistant Professor of Otorhinolaryngology. Dr.
Newman received his M.D. from Jefferson Medical
College and completed his surgical residency at New
York Presbyterian Hospital of Columbia, Cornell
University, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. After practicing in the Washington, D.C. area, Dr. Newman decided to return to the
Philadelphia area and joined PENN Medicine.
Ben Z. Stanger, M.D., Ph.D., has joined Penn as an
Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Gastrointestinal
(GI) Division and Assistant Investigator in the
Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute. His
research will focus on understanding how stem cells
are regulated during normal development and how
programs utilized by stem cells are involved in the
development and progression of GI cancers. He received his M.D. and
Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School, and completed residency training
in Internal Medicine at University of California, San Francisco. Before
coming to Penn, Dr. Stanger was on the faculty at Harvard. Dr. Stanger
said of his decision to come to Penn: “I was drawn by the opportunities
for collaborative interdisciplinary studies.”
Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center will benefit greatly from the wide
range of experience and expertise of each of these new members, and
is proud to welcome them to the ranks of our prestigious faculty.
March
PENN Medicine Week
March 5-7, 2007
Palm Beach, Florida
The Abramson Cancer Center will host lectures on
different educational topics including prevention, new
therapies, and survivorship at this annual event at the
Colony on March 7.
April
Men’s Event at the Palm
April 2007
Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center teams with the
National Cancer Prevention Fund and the Philadelphia
Palm Restaurant to sponsor a Men’s Event including
dinner, cocktails, prizes, and informal sessions to
educate local businessmen about prostate and testicular
cancers.
Kids Swim for the Cure
Saturday, April 14, 2007 – 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Westtown School, Westtown, PA
Kids Swim for The Cure is being organized by
Philadelphia area kids of all ages to raise funds for skin
cancer research. Support their heartwarming efforts by
sponsoring a swimmer. All proceeds benefit skin cancer research at Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center. For
more information, visit www.swimforthecure.org.
May
Kelly Rooney Foundation Golf Tournament
May 14, 2007 – 12:00 to 8:00p.m.
Cedarbrook Country Club, Blue Bell, PA
This inaugural golf tournament and dinner will benefit breast
cancer genetics research at the Abramson Cancer Center.
Celebrating Innovations: Abramson Cancer Center
Research Report and Annual Reception
Wednesday, May 16, 2007 – 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Houston Hall, 3417 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA
Join the Abramson Cancer Center as we celebrate our
accomplishments and honor our dedicated faculty and
staff and generous friends. Tickets are $500 per person
and sponsorships are available.
Conferences
Educational conferences for patients of the Abramson
Cancer Center, as well as their families and friends, are
held on a regular basis throughout the year.
March 16
April 13
May 18
Gastrointestinal Cancers
Head and Neck Cancers
Melanoma
For more information on any of these events, please call
215-573-4028, or visit www.penncancer.org.
5
Patient and Family
Support Groups
Support groups provide patients
and their loved ones a forum where
they can share experiences, gain
insights, and learn ways of coping
with the uncertainty and changes that
occur during the cancer experience.
Beyond this opportunity for patients
and survivors to share their experiences and concerns, support group
participants also find that the sessions
allow them to share information that
they have found to be useful.
This exchange of information is
enhanced at Penn’s Abramson Cancer
Center where social workers and
other counselors work together to
create programming for several
monthly support groups, including:
Head and Neck Cancer, Breast
Cancer, Prostate Cancer, and
Leukemia and Lymphoma.
The Abramson Cancer Center is
also starting a Young Adult Cancer
Support Group in 2007. It will
encourage patients and survivors
from 18 to 30 years old to talk about
topics of special interest,
such as dating and careers.
When there is a common theme of discussion in
a group meeting, the staff
may bring in a speaker on
that topic. Past speakers
have primarily been Penn
faculty who are nationally
renowned researchers,
physicians, nurse practitioners, and physical and occu-
pational therapists. The groups allow
time for members to ask questions on
topics from treatment issues to post
treatment concerns and quality of life
issues. According to Tom Yohe, a
member of the Head and Neck
Cancer Group, “the combination of
getting expert input, advice, and
ideas from these professionals and
other patients has proven invaluable
to me and the other members of my
group.” Further, if patients bring up
an individual problem that requires
further attention, then they are guided
to the specialist at Penn who can best
help them.
Staff members involved with the
support groups have been inspired
and energized, and the response from
the group members has been overwhelming. Members in each group
have been impacted, but maybe none
as much as the Head and Neck
Support Group which is the longest
running group at the Abramson
Cancer Center. These patients face
unique physical challenges, but they
also have the most positive views
about their treatment and care at
Penn. Some topics addressed include:
speech and swallowing problems,
oral care concerns, nutritional problems, neck and shoulder dysfunction,
cancer and depression, caregiver concerns, issues of cancer survivorship,
and advances within different fields
of treatment modalities.
Head and Neck Support
Group Success Stories
Ernst Schneck has been a regular
volunteer at the Abramson Cancer
Center since 2001. He distributes
patient education material and participates in the One-on-One Contact
program. In this role and in the Head
and Neck Cancer Support Group, he
talks with newly diagnosed head
and neck cancer patients and offers
them hope as a six year survivor.
Micki Namoli, a head and neck
cancer survivor who helped start this
support group, has
become a national
facilitator on the topic
and was a speaker at a
national support group
conference this past year.
The Abramson Cancer
Center Support Group
has meant a lot to Micki
and Ben, her husband of
40 years – both of whom
have only missed two
meetings in six years.
Members of the Head and Neck Support Group at their January monthly meeting
(Continued on Page 7)
6
(Continued from Page 6)
Patient Support Group:
Patient Spotlight – Tom Yohe
Tom Yohe is a cancer survivor.
In addition to the support of his wife,
Jeanne Marie, one of the reasons he
credits for making a miraculous recovery after being diagnosed six years ago
with a non-operable stage 4 tumor is
the Head and Neck Cancer Support
group at the Abramson Cancer Center.
The support group “inspired him during the long treatment periods.” Tom
continues to regularly attend meetings
to “make suggestions, listen and simply ‘be there’ for others who are now
at the beginning of the most frightening ordeal of their lives” and he adds,
“I continue to get occasional nuggets
of helpful hints for myself as well.”
He is an original member of the
Head and Neck Cancer Support Group
which had its first meeting in October
of 2000. Tom learned of the group
from Susan Brodish, a former staff
member who was the first coordinator
for the group, when he was in the
hospital for his initial round of
chemotherapy and radiation. He was
hospitalized for the first week due to
the 24 hour drip required for the
chemo regimen he was undergoing,
and as Tom tells the story, “it took
some argument to be able to go as my
Tom and his wife, Jeanne Marie "Jeamer" Yohe
chemo had to be
changed in the middle of the meeting.
They were not going
to let me off the
floor but I was insistent that this was
very important. It
turns out that Susan
was an experienced
chemo nurse, and
we worked it out
with the staff for her
to change the bag.”
At the first
meeting, Tom was
the only attendee
who was an inpatient and actively
undergoing treatment. As a result,
he arrived wearing
his hospital gown and in a wheelchair
accompanied by a chemo drip. Right
in the middle of the meeting, everyone
stopped talking while Susan changed
the bag. According to Tom, “no one
batted an eye and then we continued
with our discussion.”
When asked why he insisted on
going and why he still continues to
attend the meetings after four years
of being out of treatment, Tom says
“I knew that I could not survive the
coming ordeal without the help of
other people, especially people who
had been cancer patients like me -who could understand what it was I
was going through from the patient
side. I knew my survival chances were
not great given what the physicians had
shared with me, and I felt I needed
every tool at my disposal.”
Tom continues, “I was convinced
then, and even more convinced now,
that a key element to surviving the
disease, the treatment, and the aftermath is the support of people around
you and people who have been
through what I was going through
and willing to listen and share.
Medical science alone can only do
so much, the remainder is still
largely a mystery but it seems to me
that ‘connectedness’ describes it as
well as we can
right now.”
Resources
All support group meetings are
located in Philadelphia on the
Penn campus. If you'd like to
attend a meeting or would like
more information about any of
our support groups, please call
1-800-789-PENN or go to
www.penncancer.com.
7
Annual
Giving
PA R T N E R S I N H O P E
Donors in each category receive all
gifts and honors awarded to those in
previous categories.
Friends
$10 - $499
Special appreciation gift, newsletter,
various invitations.
Circle of Hope
$500- $999
Recognition in online and printed
materials, including the Abramson
Cancer Center’s Annual Report.
Patient Care Society
$1,000 - $2,499
An opportunity to provide a
personal narrative on how cancer
touched your life.
Faculty Society
$2,500- $4,999
Participation in Abramson Cancer
Center’s annual seminar, including
personal interaction with leading
cancer researchers and clinicians.
Benefactor
$5,000 - $9,999
A PENN Medicine magazine
subscription, Abramson Cancer
Center bookmark and/or special gift.
More than 500 former
patients, friends, colleagues,
and family members came
together on November 20th to
honor John H. Glick, M.D. for
his more than 20 years of
service as Director of Penn’s
Abramson Cancer Center. In
his remarks, Dr. Glick said
“Tonight in this room we have
many of our top donors and
friends standing shoulder-toshoulder with some of the best medical minds in the nation. If all of us work
together in the forthcoming campaign for PENN Medicine, we will move the
Abramson Cancer Center, PENN Medicine, and the city of Philadelphia to our
rightful place as the best in the nation and, most importantly, achieve the goal
and the dream of curing cancer in our lifetime.”
Visible in the Philadelphia sky
were six pillars of light on
December 6th to celebrate the
establishment of the Roberts
Proton Therapy Center. The
beams of light outlined the
space where the world’s first
fully integrated proton therapy
facility will be built. The
Roberts Proton Therapy
Center is named in honor of
Ralph J. and Suzanne Roberts
and Brian and Aileen Roberts,
who generously pledged $15 million to help create this facility that will treat
up to 3,000 patients a year. "Philadelphia and The University of Pennsylvania
have always been special to our family," said Ralph J. Roberts. "Suzanne and I
are delighted to have the opportunity to give back to these two communities
that have meant so much to us, with a gift that gives life through groundbreaking cancer research and treatment. Proton therapy as a treatment for cancer
will undoubtedly touch thousands of lives, both adults and children, and we
are fortunate to be a part of that process."
Director’s Society
$10,000 - $99,999
Membership in the Abramson
Cancer Center’s Director’s special
services program, complimentary
tickets to annual reception, and
invitations to special events.
To make a gift to the Abramson
Cancer Center, please contact the
Development Office at 215-898-0578.
F O R I N F O R M AT I O N O R A P P O I N T M E N T S
We hope you never need us. But if you do, please know that we are here for you with a “patients first”
attitude and a compassionate environment to offer hope and comfort to those who need it most.
Call 1-800-789-PENN or visit our website
at www.penncancer.org
For the latest information about cancer — visit our awardwinning Internet resource, OncoLink, at www.oncolink.org
Development Office
3535 Market Street, Suite 750
Philadelphia, PA 19104-3309
(215) 898-0578