BCRF's Symposium and Luncheon

The morning commenced with an enlightening Symposium entitled Not all Cancer Cells Are Alike: Identifying The Cells That Grow Into Cancers and What We Can Do About Them. The seminar featured a stellar panel of six of the world's leading breast cancer experts sharing the latest information on the specific differences among cancer cells. Following the Symposium, an overflow crowd of 1,200 guests helped to raise nearly $1.9 million. The Foundation awarded $34.5 million in grants to 166 of the world's brightest minds in cancer research today.

The Awards Luncheon opened with moving remarks by several special guests who were personally touched by the disease: Marcellus Wiley, former NFL player and ESPN sports analyst, lost his mother to breast cancer at a young age; Arlene Taub, esteemed BCRF Advisory Board member, lost her daughter after an eleven and a half year battle with the disease; Laura Lassman, President of Play for P.I.N.K., was so touched when one of her friends was diagnosed with the disease more than 15 years ago that it inspired her to start the all-volunteer group that raised $3 million for BCRF this year; Dr. Gabriel Hortobagyi, the internationally recognized researcher who was among the first eight BCRF grantees in 1994, recounted how far BCRF has come since then and how so many women with the disease are now able to live healthy lives; and finally, Robin Roberts, anchor of ABC News Good Morning America and living proof that one can beat breast cancer, spoke movingly about her personal experience. Roberts heralded Evelyn Lauder for establishing BCRF and the ever-growing "team of champions" it supports - testimony to how "one woman with vision, commitment, passion and determination can achieve [great things] when she believes in something with all her heart."

BCRF Scientific Director, Dr. Larry Norton, presented the Jill Rose Award, awarded each year in memory of its namesake to honor distinguished scientific achievement, to Dr. Robert Weinberg, founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. Norton introduced Weinberg as "one of my scientific heroes even before he became Discover Magazine's Man of the Year in 1982." Weinberg, who modestly told Luncheon attendees that he feels lucky to go to work every day in an environment where his "curiosity-driven research" is appreciated and supported, has made numerous discoveries that anchor cancer research throughout the world. In 1982, he discovered the first human cancer-causing gene, the ras oncogene. His laboratory also discovered a second type of cancer-causing gene, called a tumor suppressor gene. It normally brakes rapid cell growth and is lost from many cancer cells. More recently, his group has found that primary cancers can stimulate the growth of metastases by sending signals to the bone marrow. He believes that this may offer an opportunity to combat metastases by interrupting these blood-borne signals. He expressed gratitude to BCRF for essential financial support which enabled his laboratory to begin a new focus on breast cancer five years ago.

Two-time Tony Award winner and quintessential New Yorker, singer and actress, Bernadette Peters, presented the Honorable Michael Bloomberg with the Humanitarian Award in recognition of his leadership as Mayor of the City of New York and for being an exemplary private philanthropist and public citizen committed to healthy living, eating and smoke-free initiatives. For the past ten years, Bloomberg LP has underwritten the Play for P.I.N.K. program, enabling it to donate 100% of its proceeds directly to the Foundation.

The Symposium and Awards Luncheon was made possible by underwriters QVC and Tough Enough to Wear Pink. The Foundation also thanks co-chairmen Anne Eisenhower Flöttl, Betsy Green, Joanne de Guardiola, Ronnie Heyman, Gail Hilson, Evelyn H. Lauder, Cynthia Lufkin, Gigi Mortimer, Pauline Pitt, Elizabeth Rohatyn, and Christine Hearst Schwarzman for making this event a huge success.

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