Who we are
We are a patient-driven nonprofit dedicated to researching better therapies and a cure for angiosarcoma.
Angiosarcoma is one of the most aggressive cancers and has a dismal prognosis with a 5-year overall survival rate of 30%. We are in a race against time to find a cure, not only for ourselves, but for all victims of this insidious disease. Because this is such a rare cancer, accounting for only 0.1% of adult malignancies, it is poorly understood. We recognize the fact that unless we create a patient-driven initiative to fund angiosarcoma-specific research, our rare cancer will never be the focus of large-scale scientific endeavors that might shed light on the disease progression, light that might be cast on novel targets for therapies.
Angiosarcoma Awareness, Inc. was founded by Lauren Ryan and Corrie Painter, who battled primary angiosarcoma of the breast.
After a dedicated fight, Lauren passed away on June 19, 2014. Lauren accomplished what the government cannot. She found the common goal amongst a commonly afflicted group of folks and created an environment that extracted the best from each of them. This, alone, is astonishing. She was devilishly funny, raised money and got things done. And she raised her babies with her husband, Matt. This “ordinary” person did that! And she did while being assaulted unmercifully by this very disease that she set out to destroy.
We will identify laboratories that are currently conducting research on angiosarcoma and raise funds to support and augment their work. Our hope is to fund research that will reveal the molecular underpinnings of the disease, which might help tailor individual therapies. Corrie Painter is a research scientist and has been reviewing the work of many labs that have published reports about angiosarcoma research. She has focused on laboratories that are already well established and that have an existing expertise in angiosarcoma research. We have negotiated a contract with one lab at Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York City, that of Cristina Antonescu. We have also started another project in another lab for alternative therapies. Please visit our Angiosarcoma Research page for details.
Donate money to our organization. We need your help right now to keep this research going! Our operational costs are minimal; there are no salaries, there are no benefits, our staff comprises a lawyer, a CPA, a biomedical scientist, an office manager, and an event organizer who are donating time to this worthy cause, so that all funds will be directed to research.
It’s amazing what an incredible ride life gives us, and what is more amazing is how we do get through it. Our fate brought us together, and we will be sure to let the world know that Angiosarcoma and other Sarcoma Cancers are a REALITY. Our Voices will be heard and SAVE LIVES! WE WILL PREVAIL!
We have two groups on Facebook; one is a community support group called Angiosarcoma Cancer. The other is our official organizational account and can be found here: Angiosarcoma Awareness Inc. Please feel free to join us in both spaces.