WEST LAFAYETTE — June 2017
Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Milburn Foundation and Susan G. Komen ®, are excited to share that nearly $550,000 has been raised to fund research into inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) as well as other critical breast cancer research and community health programs. As you know, IBC is a less common but very aggressive form of breast cancer.

Throughout the month of March, Milburn and the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation teamed up to match all donations made to Komen up to a predetermined goal of $50,000—a campaign which ultimately raised more than half a million dollars, and exceeded the goal ten-fold. In total, nearly $550,000 was raised through the campaign which will support, in part, research aimed at finding new ways of detecting and treating IBC. IBC awareness was also accomplished with IBC-centric materials, associated with the campaign, going out to over 920,000 individuals in Komen’s network.

This marks the second time the three organizations have partnered to advance IBC research as a team. Last fall, the partners announced two funding opportunities for investigators with novel ideas about diagnosis and treatment of IBC. This project alone drove more awareness of IBC within the research community and garnered significantly more submissions than were originally anticipated. We’re now ready to announce the recipients of these awards.

Congratulations to:
John Martens, Ph.D., from Erasmus Universitair Medisch Centrum Rotterdam, who received funding to combine patient information from an established Dutch IBC registry with the latest genomic technology to improve the diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of IBC.

Mihaela Skobe, Ph.D., from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai also received funding to understand how the interactions between Triple Negative IBC and the lymphatic system influence the aggressiveness of the disease, ultimately providing insight on potential new treatment strategies.

“Research progress in a disease like IBC, requires vision, creative thinking and action. Through the collaborative IBC research grants and the recent matching gift campaign we’re developing a new model for meeting the needs of those facing an IBC diagnosis,” said Ginny Mason, RN, BSN, Executive Director of the IBC Research Foundation.

“The success of this partnership proves that strategic partnerships spanning across multiple charities can yield powerful results for specialized research,” said Bryon Davis, President of the Milburn Foundation. “This partnership was actively designed and facilitated for results, requiring all parties to look at challenges in new ways and leveraging each organization’s strengths.”

“Our partnership has already allowed us to fund important research, and will go a long way toward helping to reduce deaths from breast cancer,” said Ellen Willmott, interim President and CEO for Susan G. Komen. “Komen has set a Bold Goal, but we know we will not be able to achieve this alone — only as a community, which is why our partnership with the Milburn Foundation and the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation is so valuable.”

A portion of the funds from the March campaign will be used to provide additional research support to the most promising of the two recipients named above, following a review of their progress to date and other prerequisites.