Dear Friends,

We are delighted to announce the return of The CCRT “Brighter Future Ball” which will be held on Saturday, 28^th April 2018 in the Ballsbridge Hotel, Dublin 4, from 7pm co-hosted by Professor John Crown and Barry Gilmartin.

Yvonne and Barry Gilmartin started the ‘Ball’ rolling in 2010 and a few years later passed the baton to Ms. Elaine Kelly.  This spectacular event has always been one of our key fundraisers and to date has raised in excess of €300,000 which went directly to the CCRT’s most valuable research projects and trials.

This year’s ball is very special as Barry will once again take the lead as we celebrate Yvonne’s life and her significant contribution to cancer research. (Please see below Yvonne’s story as written by Barry).

The Cancer Clinical Research Trust (CCRT) CHY12210 is a registered cancer research charity. The primary focus of our work is “translational research”. This term refers to the “translation” of scientific findings in a laboratory setting into potential treatments for patients with cancer, therefore, improving cancer care.

In the translational approach, all of the new treatments which are tested in patients are derived from solid scientific observations which were made in the laboratory. Similarly, information about the effects of new treatments on the patient and on their cancer, is fed back to the laboratory scientists in order to enhance their care.

This world-wide clinical-laboratory partnership has resulted in revolutionary new treatments for many types of cancer. Your support of CCRT enables our researchers to participate in and to contribute to the world-wide war on cancer.

The Brighter Future Ball is a wonderful opportunity for people to come together, including cancer survivors, those living with cancer and those whose lives have been impacted by cancer to enjoy an evening of great food, fun and entertainment.

We are hoping that you would be in a position to do one or more of the following:

• Join us for a fabulous evening by taking a table or alternatively a couple of seats
  •  – 10 people to a table at €125 per person.
• Be one of our sponsors for the evening by contributing to the running costs of the event.
• Donate an item for our raffle, spot prize or auction?

To purchase tickets online please click here. For further information please contact Naoise Kelly, Tel: 01 2213445. or please email: fundraising@ccrt.ie

Kind regards,

Professor John Crown                                          Barry Gilmartin

Director CCRT                                                 Brighter Future Ball Co-Host

******************************         OUR STORY      *******************************

In November 2010 my wife Yvonne founded the Brighter Future Ball to raise funds for the Cancer Clinical Research Trust.  She wanted to give back to those who had helped her.  Patients, families, nurses and Doctors got a night off, an escape, with a reassurance that there was more being done.

Rewind to 2007 and we were filled with the anticipation of her pregnancy, our baby was on the way.  And then it got interesting.  At 20 weeks Yvonne was diagnosed with Inflammatory Her2+ breast cancer.  Thanks to research this was not the imminent demise it once was. But no one knew how her body would react to the chemotherapy.  In theory all was positive, but everyone was on tenterhooks that first day. Well, Max made it, at 38 weeks, with a bald, devoted Mum and an awestruck Dad. Two weeks later she had a mastectomy.

In the intervening years cancer was to return on 8 occasions, including her hip, sacrum, lungs and brain. It led to a hip replacement, 2 femur fractures, a femur replacement, 2 hip dislocations, a couple of pulmonary embolisms and a few bouts of pneumonia.  Throw in hundreds of hospital trips and stays for chemotherapy, scans etc, and a record breaking ability to endure some pretty strong treatments and you get some idea of how I realised that I’d married a hero.

She never let her illness tie her down.  She adored being a Mum to Max and filling our home with laughter. She loved travel and organising our family holidays every year.  She loved doing her interior design course. She loved being with family, friends, and returning to her home town of Skibbereen, always giggling and seeking fun.  She also loved going to concerts, and when she secured her ticket for Coldplay at Croke Park she was overjoyed.  She just adored them and their twinkly lights.  And it was on her 42 birthday, 8th July 2017.

This past May she required Stereotactic treatment on renewed activity in her brain.  This is a focused radiation.  She told me if she can’t make the concert that I was to go for her. I just said you’ll never be too sick that we won’t get you there.

She left us  on 19^th June 2017, having lived life.  Smiling and laughing, always looking out for those around her. A brilliant, heroic Mum she never recognised her inspiration.

I can’t call the concert a highlight, cathartic perhaps. Watching the bouncing crowd, the music and the lights, oh the twinkly lights, it all made sense. Yvonne had chosen A Sky Full of Stars for her farewell.

I thank you for reading this as I’m sure you get these all the time. I would be so grateful if you can support the Brighter Future Ball in some small way.

My very best,

Barry Gilmartin.

Raffle tickets available on Eventbrite or at Michael Byrne Craft Butchers.

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/sandymount-summer-sizzle-tickets-34631841771

Michael Byrne and Sons Craft Butchers, 92 sandymount Road, Sandymount, Dublin 4

Further details available at: www.facebook.com/SandymountSummerSizzl/

We are very grateful to the organisers in selecting the Cancer Clinical Research Trust as the beneficiary of this exciting event.

For a fun, pre-Christmas night out make your way to the Goat Grill, Goatstown, on Thursday December 1st for a fundraising Quiz Night in aid of CCRT! Make it your work Christmas night out!

€15 per person (€60 table of four). Tickets available from Tom Flynn email: tomflynn08@gmail.com.

Great prizes up for grabs in the raffle on the night!

Huge thanks to the Flynn family for their fantastic fundraising efforts to date in memory of their Dad, Barry (RIP), and for their dedication in organising this night out in aid of CCRT and cancer research.

PROGRAMME

Friday, 30th September, Mezzanine Suite, Herbert Park hotel
Chairs: Prof John Crown & Prof Robert Kerbel
CPD Accreditation: 6 points

Registration from 11:00

IMMUNOTHERAPY
11:30-12:00 Development of immune therapies beyond PD-1 and CTLA-4 blockade
Dr Mario Sznol, Yale Cancer Centre

12:00-12:30 Clinical trials of oxygenation agents and antagonists of A2a adenosine receptors to enable tumor rejection by immunotherapies of cancer
Prof Michail Siktkovsky, Northeastern University, Boston

12:30-1:00 Talimogene laherparepvec, first approved oncolytic immunotherapy
Dr Ohrling Katarina, Amgen Inc.

1:00-1:45 Lunch, Herbert Suite

NOVEL THERAPIES
1:45-2:15 Ribociclib – mechanism of action, preclinical and early clinical development
Dr Thomas Bachelot, Centre Leon Berard, Lyon, France

2:15-2:45 Eribulin mechanisms of action: Beyond antimitotic effects to complex changes in tumour biology
Dr Bruce Littlefield, Eisai Inc.

ANGIOGENESIS
2:45-3:15 The biology of angiogenesis and the challenge of identifying anti-angiogenesis biomarkers in oncology
Dr Annette Byrne, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland

3:15-3:45 Implications of ‘vessel co-option’ by tumors for antiangiogenic therapy of metastatic disease
Prof Robert Kerbel, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, Toronto

3:45-4:00 Coffee break, Herbert Suite

TARGETING CELL SIGNALLING
4:00-4:30 The PI3K pathway in cancer
Prof Bryan Hennessy, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland

4:30-5:00 Targeting the IGF signaling network in cancer with the IGF-1/-2 ligand neutralizing antibody BI 836845 – an update
Dr Thomas Bogenrieder, Boehringer Ingelheim

5:00-5:30 Neratinib for treatment of HER2 mutant, non-amplified breast cancers
Dr Alshad Lalani, Puma Biotechnology Inc.

5:30-6:00 A brief TOR of vistusertib: translating the science into the clinic
Dr Christopher Shepherd, AstraZeneca UK Limited

Saturday 1st October, Mezzanine Suite, Herbert Park Hotel
Chairs: Prof John Crown & Prof Robert Kerbel
CPD Accreditation: 3 points

PERSONALIZED CANCER MEDICINE
9:00-9:30 Next Generation Sequencing of FFPE samples in development cohorts and a large randomized trial (ER pos HER2 neg breast cancer).
Dr Christer Svedman, Genomic Health

9:30-10:00 Hybrid-capture based liquid biopsy allows the detection of diverse genomic alterations
Dr Judith Müller, NEO New Oncology

10:00-10.30 HER2 testing: Past and present
Prof Mike Press, University of Southern California

10:30-10:50 Coffee break, Herbert Suite

DNA DAMAGE/REPAIR
10:50-11:20 Mutant p53 as a target for the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer
Prof Joe Duffy, St Vincent’s University Hospital/University College Dublin

11:20-11:50 Targeting ATR as an attractive anti-cancer approach
Dr John Pollard, Vertex Pharmaceuticals

11:50-12:20 Talazoparib pharmacology: Clinical potential for PARP inhibition and PARP trapping
Dr Vernon Phan, Medivation Inc.

12:20-1:20 Lunch, Herbert Suite

DIVERSITY/GENOMIC INSTABILITY
1:20-1:50 Immune sculpting of the breast cancer genome
Prof Lajos Pusztai, Yale Cancer Center Genetics, Genomics and Epigenetics Program

1:50-2:20 Clonal diversity and genomic drivers of exceptional responses
Prof Michael Barrett, Mayo Clinic Cancer Centre, Arizona

2:20-2:50 DNA instability in solid tumours – the key to curing cancer?
Prof Ken O’Byrne, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Queensland University of Technology

2:50-3:10 Coffee break, Herbert Suite

TARGETING TRANSCRIPTIONAL REGULATION
3:10-3:40 Improving cancer therapy via CDK8/19 Mediator kinase
Prof Igor Roninson, University of South Carolina

3:40-4:10 The potential of inecalcitol, a vitamin D receptor agonist, in hematologic malignancies
Dr Remi Delansorne, Hybrigenics

TARGETING CYCLIN DEPENDENT KINASES
4:10-4:40 Preclinical activity of abemaciclib as a single agent or in combination with anti-mitotic or targeted therapies for breast cancer
Dr Neil O’Brien, Department of Medicine, UCLA

4:40-5:10 Development of palbociclib from pre-clinical assessment to global registration: A paradigm for development of CDK 4/6 inhibitors
Dr Rich Finn, Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA