Cancer Father Turns Love Into Action
Cancer Father Turns Love Into Action
Written by Rachel Wood, Director of Marketing
Thomas Gad is the father of Daniella, a high-risk neuroblastoma survivor. He is also the Founder and President of Y-mAbs Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company that was inspired by his daughter’s cancer battle. Today for Father’s Day we celebrate this cancer father. And we celebrate how he turned his love for his daughter into action for cancer patients around the world.
Daniella endured 6 years of various cancer treatments for stage IV neuroblastoma followed by a relapse brain tumor. She received breakthrough cancer immunotherapy at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), experimental treatments using 8H9 and mouse 3F8, eventually resulting in her overcoming neuroblastoma. Thomas wanted other children to have access to novel treatments, a primary focus when developing Y-mAbs.
Y-mAbs is the presenting sponsor for our first annual Golf for a Cure on June 21st. But they aren’t like every other biopharmaceutical company, they were born out of purpose and intention. A purpose and intention that is aligned with everything Isabella Santos Foundation is about, providing hope and promise to other kids fighting cancer. We couldn’t be more excited to have Y-mAbs’ support for this event.
Y-mAbs is focused on developing specifically targeted antibody immunotherapies that address clear unmet needs in challenging and rare relapsing, recurrent cancers. What started out as a primary focus on neuroblastoma has grown into developing advanced targeted pediatric oncology treatments for other rare cancers such as Osteosarcoma, DIPG, Medulloblastoma, and Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumors. They have an advanced pipeline of antibody immunotherapies, which are currently being investigated in ongoing clinical trials, that may someday help patients fight cancer.
Late last year Y-mAbs received FDA approval for Danyelza (naxitamab), a new antibody treatment for treating relapsed/refractory high-risk neuroblastoma. In March, Levine Children’s administered their first of several treatments of Danyelza indicated for high-risk neuroblastoma patients. This treatment is designed to train the body’s own immune system to detect and destroy neuroblastoma cells that have survived chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Currently, LCH is the busiest facility in the country other than Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York administering this type of treatment in an outpatient clinic. This type of antibody treatment was the result of clinical research (3F8) at MSKCC and actually a type of treatment Isabella traveled to New York for.
Thank you Thomas for turning your love for your daughter into action for so many. Thank you Y-mAbs for trusting in ISF and supporting our mission. We are excited to see what we can accomplish together.[/av_textblock]
