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Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Cause for Celebration

The Katie Gerstenberger Endowment for Cancer Research was created and is supported by gifts from family and friends of Katie Gerstenberger, who died at the age of 12 after enduring 10 months of grueling chemotherapy and an 18-hour surgery.
We founded this endowment with the aim to change the way cancer is treated, and to prevent other families from enduring the heartache which Katie and we have experienced.

The wonderful news we have to share is the fact that in the eight years since her passing, Katie's endowment has grown to over $310,000, and donates its income to fund immunotherapy research, which is today saving lives, without chemotherapy or surgery!

In 2015, the endowment sent $11,073 of its income to support the research of Dr. Michael Jensen in his lab at the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research. The remission rate in their work has been 91%, and these are cases of relapsed cancer (which is more difficult to treat)! It is gratifying to see this work succeed, and gain even more momentum. If you would like to read an update on this work, please follow this link. One of Dr. Jensen's colleagues is Dr. Rebecca Gardner, who was on Katie's care team, and is featured in the article with him.

Thank you, family and friends who have supported, and continue to support, Katie's endowment. Seattle Children's Hospital will be sharing further updates in the coming months, so stay tuned! If you'd like to know how you can help, please contact me at karengberger at gmail dot com.