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Health & Fitness

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Celebrates September as Blood Cancer Awareness Month

Find out more about The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society- and just what the organization is doing to kick cancer to the curb, while celebrating Blood Cancer Awareness Month!

Remarkable progress has been made in treating patients with blood cancers, with survival rates for many having doubled or tripled, and in some cases quadrupled, since The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society was founded in 1949.

One of those patients includes Mary Ann Barlow of Upper Nazareth, who was diagnosed on February 28, 2008 with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, a cancer that attacks the lymph nodes, spleen and other immune system organs. She soon underwent eight rounds of chemotherapy and took Rituxan, a drug for her type of cancer. The treatment and medicine resulted in physicians giving her a clean bill of health.

Each September, we observe Blood Cancer Awareness Month to shed light on these diseases and let the public know all about the resources available for blood cancer patients and their families.

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Since our inception, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) has invested more than $875 million in research to find cures and better therapies. We support researchers' efforts to find new molecular targets for treatment and potential immunotherapies, and help them translate their laboratory findings into more effective therapies for patients. The impact is being felt because survival rates for children with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, the most common childhood cancer, have risen over the past 40 years from 3% to nearly 90% today. Hodgkins Lymphoma patient survival rates have doubled to 86% since the 1960s. The survival rate for Myeloma patients has more than tripled in the past decade.

Through our patient services programs, we offer a comprehensive array of education and support services to blood cancer patients and their families. We have family support groups, free patient education workshops featuring health experts, and First Connection: a peer-to-peer support program that matches newly diagnosed patients with trained volunteer survivors. We also provide financial assistance to patients with significant financial need and an insurance co-pay assistance program.

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Our web site - www.lls.org/epa - is the definitive resource for information about blood cancers. Our Patient Services Managers are available by phone or email to provide information, support and resources to patients and their families by calling MaryAnn Chupella at 610-266-8512 or emailing maryann.chupella@lls.org.

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