Crosstex International helps fund new research into rare women’s cancers
This month, Crosstex International donated $20,000 in proceeds from its Pink with a Purpose campaign to New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Each year from October through December, Crosstex offers pink versions of popular everyday products from its catalogue. When customers purchase these items, a percentage of the proceeds are donated to Sloan Kettering research. The Pink with a Purpose catalog includes mainstay products from the Patient’s Choice line of preventative products, face masks, and other PPE products, as well as sterilization accessory products including sterilization pouches and more.
This year, the “pink” proceeds are being used to fund an ongoing study on certain extremely rare, malignant tumors affecting girls, adolescents, and young women. Also known as sarcomas, these tumors have a dramatic clinical impact in spite of their rarity.
Dr. Cristina R. Antonescu runs the Sloan Kettering research lab that works to decipher the genetic code of different sarcoma types. Antonescu’s expert research team uses cutting-edge technology and is responsible for the discovery of dozens of novel molecular signatures of different sarcoma types. These crucial discoveries allow clinicians to make more accurate diagnoses and pinpoint actionable treatment targets that can be inhibited by specific and powerful drugs.
Antonescu says her team is extremely fortunate to be living in a time of unprecedented technologic advances in medicine. “For example,” she says, “one of the five researchers in my lab is a full-time bioinformatician who applies algorithms to decode the genetic abnormalities that trigger cancer. This new, next generation sequencing method will probably be the future tool to decode the abnormal genome of all cancers, not just sarcomas.”
With the help of funding from Crosstex, Sloan Kettering’s research team, using state-of-the-art genomic sequencing methods, will attempt to isolate a recurring genetic abnormality that is hypothesized to be found in all sarcomas of a particular type. Such a finding would significantly advance the medical community’s understanding of how cancers of that phenotype might be treated.
“My team’s incredible dedication is a constant inspiration to me,” says Antonescu, “and the only downside is that we lack the resources to match the exuberance of our talent and expertise. We are very glad to embrace any donation from which young women or children with sarcomas might benefit.”
“Our customers made this happen through their deliberate and conscientious purchases of Pink with a Purpose products,” states Andrew Whitehead, senior vice president of marketing/business development for Crosstex. “The continued and energetic response we’ve witnessed over the years speaks loud and clear; our customers truly appreciate our efforts to support the research community in its quest to cure these incredibly aggressive cancers that disproportionately affect young women. This is a heartwarming experience that brightens every holiday season for us. We are proud to make a difference.”
Crosstex International’s annual Pink with a Purpose program donates proceeds from select Crosstex products to support women’s cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the world’s oldest and largest private cancer research and treatment center. For more information on the Pink with a Purpose program and the full line of Crosstex infection control products, please call Crosstex at 1-888-276-7783 (toll free), 631-582-6777 or visit www.crosstex.com.
