On July 17th, the Annual Ruth Farb Golf Classic was held at the beautiful Lebovic Golf Club in Aurora. More than $75,000 was raised this year, making it the most successful tournament to date!
A big thank you to The Farb and Koffman Families, who, since 2011, have been hosting a friends and family golf tournament to honour their beloved Ruth Farb who passed away from Pancreatic cancer.
Through their partnership since 2018 with the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University, funds raised have supported the Alex U Soyka Research Partnership between Hebrew University and Ontario researchers and focuses among other things on developing effective patient-specific treatments to improve outcomes and new diagnostic methods for early detection. The research is the product of a mosaic of interconnecting labs both at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Sheba Medical Centre and at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research.
This partnership has nurtured collaborative opportunities that have only strengthened the research yield and the opportunities for successful interventions.
In the latest research report submitted at the end of June 2024, some of the highlights include:
- A new treatment mode to utilize immunotherapies, which until now has been ineffective for pancreatic cancers. The manuscript describing this work was accepted for publication in the prestigious journal Nature and will be online within a short period of time.
- A combination of newly identified markers may allow for detection of pancreatic cancer at an earlier and more curable stage.
- A clinical trial with the support of the Hadassah Medical Centre will begin shortly to test the use of a known drug for Stage 4 pancreatic cancer patients. If successful, this trial may offer, for the first time, a viable treatment option for this most challenging cancer.
We look forward to a continued relationship with the Farb and Koffman families and thank them for their wonderful dedication. For further information on this outstanding research collaboration, please contact Merle Goldman at mgoldman@cfhu.org.
