Hoag Family Cancer Center Thanks Seena Magowitz Foundation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Seena Magowitz Foundation Helps Pave Way
For Innovative Pancreatic Cancer Clinical Trial
Hoag Family Cancer Institute of Orange County, California Launches Trial For Advanced Patients
PHOENIX, August 15, 2020 – With support from the Seena Magowitz Foundation, one of Southern California’s highest-volume cancer programs will soon offer a groundbreaking new treatment opportunity for advanced pancreatic cancer patients.
The Hoag Family Cancer Institute thanks the Seena Magowitz Foundation for its support of the groundbreaking innovative immunotherapy clinical trial. This unprecedented treatment approach involves injecting a pair of immunotherapy drugs directly into the patient’s tumors to stimulate and mobilize the immune system to attack cancer that has spread to other areas in the body. The revolutionary Phase 1 trial offered at Newport Beach’s Hoag Family Cancer Institutes is open to eligible patients who have metastatic pancreatic cancer.
“In creating the Seena Magowitz Foundation, our goal was to find new ways to fund groundbreaking pancreatic cancer treatments that would change the narrative for patients,” said foundation Founder Roger Magowitz, who named the nonprofit after his mother, Seena, who lost her life to the disease. “After an advanced diagnosis, patients often hear, ‘Get your affairs in order,’, and we thought, ‘How is that acceptable?’ Innovative treatments like this are what are changing the game and extending life expectancy for today’s patients.”
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of the disease, and while survival rates are moving in the right direction, they are nowhere near where they need to be. In 2011, the average five-year survival rate among pancreatic cancer patients was just 6%. In 2020, the American Cancer Society reported that, for the first time ever, it topped 10%. That 10% average 5-year survival rate is still the worst of all cancers.
In a Phase 1 cancer trial, a small number of participants undergo treatment under the close supervision of physicians and researchers, revealing critical information about dosage, side effects and how much these treatments impact survival and response rates.
About the Seena Magowitz Foundation For Pancreatic Cancer Research
Founded in 2002 and based in Phoenix, Arizona, the Seena Magowitz Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to funding groundbreaking pancreatic cancer research that extends lives and improves outcomes for patients. In close cooperation with Phoenix, Arizona’s Translational Genomics Research Institute, the foundation paves the way for innovative new treatment methods with the ultimate goal of finding a cure for this devastating disease. For more, visit SeenaMagowitzFoundation.org.
About Hoag Family Cancer Institute
As the largest cancer program in Southern California outside of Los Angeles County. Hoag Family Cancer Institute treats more than 4,000 new patients and 18,000 total patients annually. Hoag’s multidisciplinary cancer team orchestrates sub-specialized, tumor-specific programs that provide leading edge cancer treatments and a full range of advanced cancer therapies, as well as Hoag’s Precision Medicine Program and new investigational treatments. For more information, visit www.hoag.org/specialties-services/cancer/