Damon Runyon scientists have been on the forefront of lymphoma research since 1957, when Dr. Henry Kaplan became the first to demonstrate cures for Hodgkin’s disease using radiation therapy.  Our scientists:  

• were the first to demonstrate that Epstein-Barr virus can cause lymphoma.
• developed radioimmunotherapies such as the cancer drug Bexxar, which has resulted in remissions in the majority of patients who do not respond to chemotherapy.
• developed a new technology that allows the analysis of cancer-related proteins in the patient using a fast, non-invasive method.  Using this method, scientists were able to easily distinguish types of lymphomas and test the efficacy of treatments without painful, invasive biopsies.

Damon Runyon is currently funding scientists who are researching ways to better diagnose, treat and cure lymphoma.  These researchers are:

• developing novel immunotherapies for treating lymphomas, including a therapeutic vaccine for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and a targeted therapy for B-cell lymphomas.
• investigating adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma, a deadly cancer that affects some of the most underserved cancer patients.  This work will provide a framework for tests that distinguish patients who will benefit from interferon therapy from those who will not.
• studying how the immune system responds to persistent viral infections - a cause of lymphomas and other virally-induced cancers
• seeking to discover infections microorganisms associated with lymphomas.  The characterization of the genetic changes caused by these microorganisms has the potential to facilitate the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of many cancers.