2024 Special Pledge

Joan Font-Burgada

Researching Liver Cancer

The liver is like the offensive line on a football team, when it is functioning properly no one thinks about it; however, the liver is a place where cancers can wait silently until the opportunity arises for them to break loose. Those opportunities include challenges that we all inflict on our livers such as alcohol, obesity, and diabetes, which sharply diminish the liver’s ability to protect us. Shockingly, liver cancer rates have more than tripled since 1980, currently ranks fifth in the world, and accounts for 700,000 deaths annually. Unfortunately, effective treatments have remained elusive. That's where our scientists at Fox Chase Cancer Center can help. They are diving into the world of liver cells, studying what happens to them when faced with insults like obesity, which transform the liver from a strong, cancer-resistant organ into a vulnerable, disease-ridden one. Armed with cutting-edge tools and mouse models, they're on a mission to uncover the secrets of how these stealthy cancer cells can be kept in check by learning from our healthy livers. They need your help to kick liver cancer to the curb.

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