President’s Message

Winter 2010

July 17, 2010 is Bladder Cancer Awareness Day
BCAN is organizing the first annual Bladder Cancer Awareness Day to be held on Saturday, July 17, 2010.  We are working with dozens of local volunteers who are planning events around the country to raise awareness, including picnics, walk-a-thons, candle lighting ceremonies, and more.  These events will hopefully receive local and national media coverage.  Visit our Volunteer Corner for more information on this effort.  To volunteer to help with an event or work with local media, please e-mail Janet McIver, BCAN’s Information and Outreach Coordinator, at 888-901-BCAN (2226) or volunteer@bcan.org.

BCAN Award for Bladder Cancer Research
BCAN is pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for the BCAN Award for Bladder Cancer Research.  This $25,000 grant will cover direct costs associated with a one year bladder cancer-specific research proposal.  The purpose of this grant is to advance research that will increase the understanding of bladder cancer risk, biology, prevention, and treatment while encouraging young investigators to pursue a career in bladder cancer research.

The selection committee is eager to review all qualified applications, and we encourage you to distribute this grant information to any young researchers interested in investigating bladder cancer.

2010 Bladder Cancer Think Tank Meeting
The Bladder Cancer Think Tank met for the first time in the summer of 2006 with more than 30 participants.  Since then, the Think Tank has grown tremendously while encouraging valuable collaboration among bladder cancer researchers and physicians.  This August, BCAN will host approximately 100 leading bladder cancer physicians, researchers, advocates and survivors for the Fifth Annual Think Tank meeting in Traverse City, Michigan.

Working groups from the 2009 Think Tank have made incredible progress throughout the year on projects like developing a Bladder Cancer Survivorship Toolkit to provide critical information for bladder cancer patients, gathering information from across the country about treatment patterns, and creating a Bladder Cancer Research Network.  Because of the success these groups have had, they will form the basis for the 2010 Think Tank program.  We look forward to continuing to work with the meeting participants to improve the understanding and treatment of bladder cancer.

Scientific Advisory Board Additions
BCAN is pleased to welcome several new members to our Scientific Advisory Board:

• Dr. Jessie Au, Distinguished University Professor at Ohio State University
• Dr. Scott Gilbert, Assistant Professor and Medical Director of the Urology Quality and Safety Program at the University of Florida
• Dr. Mark Gonzalgo, Associate Professor of Urology and Director of Robotic-Assisted Urologic Cancer Surgery at Stanford University.  We especially appreciate Dr. Gonzalgo’s participation in this issue’s Ask the Doctor column.
• Dr. Yair Lotan, Associate Professor of Urology at UT Southwestern
• Dr. Matthew Milowsky, Department of Genitourinary Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University
• Dr. Raj Pruthi, Associate Professor of Surgery/Urology and Director of Urologic Oncology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Dr. Jonathan Rosenberg, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Medical Oncologist at Harvard Medical School and director of the Dana-Farber / Brigham  and Women’s Hospital Bladder Cancer Center

New Staff Member
BCAN welcomes Grace Schroer as our new Marketing and Development Coordinator.  More information about BCAN’s staff is available on our website.

Thank you all for your continuing support.  With your help, BCAN is looking forward to another great year.

Diane Zipursky Quale
BCAN President