Team Sarcoma/Team GIST Support
The Operating Committee of GIST Support International is pleased to endorse the efforts of Team GIST Support as part of the Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative (http://www.liddyshriversarcomainitiative.org/) to help raise International awareness for sarcomas, which comprise only 1% of cancers. We are so very appreciative to Bev and Bruce Shriver for the invitation to participate and for all their efforts to make this a Sarcoma community effort. The Team 
Sarcoma Bike 2006 Tour, held July 1-7, 2006, is an internationally coordinated event designed to:
- raise public awareness about this disease and the impact it can have on families,
- raise public awareness of the lack of young adults in cancer-related clinical trials, and
- raise money for sarcoma research.
Team GIST Support has completed its journey through Denmark — a very memorable experience! We are happy to report that our young Team GIST Support (Megan Lamb, Rob Lamb and Jonathan Craig) raised over $10,000 that will be donated to the GIST research efforts of Dr. Anette Duensing of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and Dr. Sebastian Bauer of West German Cancer Center, University of Essen, Germany. Dr. Duensing and her husband, Dr. Stefan Duensing, joined Team Sarcoma/GIST Support in Denmark for two days of the bike tour. Dr. Bauer held a virtual Team Sarcoma/GIST Support in his home town of Essen.
LINK HERE to read the riders’ account of the 7-day trip, with plenty of photos.
LINK HERE for a humorous account and even more photos from the Essen bike ride organized by Dr. Bauer.
To donate to team GIST Support:
Make checks out to: FJC (in the memo line write: Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative/GIST). Mail checks to: Team GIST Support, 12 Bomaca Drive, Doylestown, PA 18901. For further information about the tour, please contact Bruce Shriver at: shriver@genesis2.com. If you have other questions, please contact GSI at gsi@gistsupport.org.
The funds raised by Team GIST Suppport are going directly to two Young Investigators involved in GIST research: Dr. Anette Duensing and Dr. Sebastian Bauer.
Dr. Duensing has been member of the GSI Science Committee since its initiation and has been invaluable to us as a consultant for questions concerning GIST research and pathology-related developments. She has contributed to the “Ask the Professional” section of our website and is especially involved in the preparation and review of educational material about GIST that is posted on our website.
During her postdoctoral training, Dr. Duensing headed the GIST-related studies in Dr. Jonathan Fletcher’s laboratory at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA. This research has led to the identification of proteins that can be targeted by new kinase inhibitors as a complement to KIT inhibition by imatinib mesylate (Gleevec(). After accepting a position as Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, Dr. Duensing has focused on the identification of the precise mode of action of imatinib. Towards this end, she has generated highly promising preliminary data that have the potential to lead to the development of novel treatment strategies for patients with primary or recurrent GIST and that eventually will help to overcome drug resistance.
Dr. Bauer was recently presented with a Young Investigator Award for his research into Gleevec resistance in GIST at the 2005 annual meeting of the Connective Tissue Oncology Society:
[Abstract 457] TARGETING HSP90 IN IM-RESISTANT GIST: KIT DEGRADATION AS A BROADLY RELEVANT SALVAGE STRATEGY.
Sebastian Bauer, Lynn Yu, George D Demetri, Jonathan A Fletcher
Having recently completed his post-doctoral work in the prestigious lab of Jonathan Fletcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Department of Pathology, Boston, MA, Dr. Bauer has now opened his own translational sarcoma research lab at the West German Cancer Center, University of Essen in Germany. Based on his experience in Boston, he plans to further develop salvage treatments in Gleevec-resistant GIST as well as to evaluate new targeted treatments in other soft tissue sarcomas. Besides his preclinical research Dr. Bauer works as a medical oncologist in the interdisciplinary Sarcoma Center of the University Hospital of Essen.