September is Blood Cancer Awareness Month September is Blood Cancer Awareness Month and thanks to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) – the largest nonprofit dedicated to fighting blood cancers – survival rates for many blood cancer patients have doubled, tripled and even quadrupled since 1960. But despite these advances, more than a third of blood cancer patients still do not survive five years after their diagnosis. These sobering statistics point out the urgent need to get involved in the fight against blood cancer: Every three minutes, someone in the U.S. is diagnosed with a blood cancer. Every nine minutes, someone dies from a blood cancer. Blood cancers are the third leading cause of cancer deaths in the US. Today, more than 1.3 million people in the U.S. are living with, or in remission from, a blood cancer. Blood cancer research has been at the forefront of lifesaving discoveries beginning with chemotherapy and LLS has paved the way for groundbreaking research including immunotherapies, genomics and precision medicine – which emerged from researching blood cells, which are easier to access and study than cancer cells in solid tumors. “Beating Cancer Is In Our Blood” is a new platform highlighting LLS’s resolve to end blood cancers and showcasing the breakthroughs in blood cancer research which are now saving lives and being tested in clinical trials for other cancers and diseases, such as brain, breast, kidney, liver, lung, ovarian, pancreatic and prostate cancer, as well as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes. Research breakthroughs in blood cancer treatments are occurring at an ever-increasing rate; last year alone saw 18 new U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approvals for blood cancers, and LLS supported 15 of them. Emily Dumler from Shawnee, Kansas, a 37-year-old mother of three young children, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in August 2013. After a whirlwind of intense treatments including chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant and months of hospitalization, Emily relapsed soon after each treatment and in 2015 was given a devastating prognosis – doctors said she had six months to live. But then, Emily received a glimmer of hope when her doctors told her of a potential new treatment. In July 2015, Emily became the third patient in the world enrolled a clinical trial for CAR T-cell therapy that was made possible by LLS funding. The revolutionary therapy was a success! This CAR T-cell immunothera