By Clinical Informatics News Staff 

 

October 22, 2013 | CureCancerStarter.org launched today, serving as a crowdfunding platform connecting cancer patients, their friends and family to cancer researchers. 

 

The site hosts information including videos about cancer research from leading cancer centers, so patients and donors can "see inside the lab" for the first time, and invites the public to contribute to research projects. 

 

Pilot partners include the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center (Chapel Hill, NC), The Duke Cancer Institute (Durham, NC), Roswell Park Cancer Institute (Buffalo, NY) and the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center (Madison, WI) with plans to extend to other federally designated cancer research centers soon. 

 

CureCancerStarter.org was created by cancer survivor Martin Smith and Raleigh, N.C. web and software developers Atlantic BT. Crowdfunding cancer research grew out of Smith's own oncologist’s funding challenges. Smith’s oncologist, Dr. Hank van Deventer, shared how his NIH grant application for fibrocyte research was turned down. Dr. van Deventer's fibrocyte research is one of the first cancer research campaigns shared on CureCancerStarter.org.

 

"You never feel more alone than the day you hear 'cancer' and your name in the same sentence," explained Smith. Cancer patients aren't alone because they have friends, family and great cancer research and care institutions such as UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Duke Cancer Institute, Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the Carbone Cancer Center at the University of Wisconsin working hard with CureCancerStarter.org to cure cancer in our lifetime.