For over 60 years, the Woman’s Cancer Association (WCA) of the University of Miami has supported cancer research, education and patients’ needs. In June 2020, they announced five new grants for physician-researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“The Miller School of Medicine and Sylvester are making incredible advances in cancer research and patient care,” said Bill Tenney, president of the WCA. “We are dedicated to providing the seed funds brilliant physician-researchers need to forge ahead with their discoveries.”

The WCA has a long history of raising funds to support research at the Cancer Center. Since its inception in 1959, the group has raised more than $14 million to promote cancer research, patient treatment, and education, including the five new grants, which totaled $285,000.

This year’s recipients included: Luisa Cimmino, Ph.D., assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, for her research entitled “Enhancing TET Function with Vitamin C for the Treatment of Leukemia”; Marzenna Blonska, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine, for research entitled “Oncogenic Signaling Pathways in B-Cell Lymphomas”; Julio Barredo, M.D., professor of medicine and associate chair for basic research at the Holtz Children's Hospital at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center, for his research targeting the intersection of metabolism and epigenetics in the treatment of acute leukemia.

Other support included the Pearl M. and Edwin L. Powell Woman’s Cancer Association Endowment Fund. Each year, the WCA awards a grant to a physician-researcher at Sylvester from the endowment’s accrued interest. This year, Macarena de la Fuente, M.D., neuro-oncology clinical service leader for the Oncology Service Line at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and chief of the Neuro-Oncology Division in the Department of Neurology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, was the recipient for her groundbreaking brain cancer research.

In addition to research, the WCA’s funding initiatives focus on cancer patient treatment and recovery. The organization continued their 20-year support of the Holtz Children’s Hospital Pediatric Palliative Care team with a $5,000 grant. They have also established a bereavement room for families of pediatric cancer patients and supplied materials for the library at the Batchelor Children’s Research Institute.

The Woman’s Cancer Association got its start in the late 1950s, when 28 Dade County women met to discuss ways to help fight the battle against cancer. By 1959, the group had adopted its organizational charter as the Woman’s Cancer Association of the University of Miami. There are currently two chapters that comprise the Woman’s Cancer Association — the Barton Ravlin Chapter and Heidi Hewes Chapter — both of which raise funds from individual and family grants, community partners, corporate sponsors, fundraisers, and proceeds from their resale store, the Bargain Box.