Mpd Foundation

Primary mission is to raise public awareness of the myeloproliferative disorders and to stimulate original research in pursuit of new treatments and eventually a cure. As a secondary goal, the MPD Foundation hopes to use the research and therapies developed from the MPD work to benefit a broader range of blood cancers such as multiple myeloma, myelogenic leukemia and and lymphocytic leukemia. A third goal is to give patients and their families the information they need to manage their disorders

Mission

Primary mission is to raise public awareness of the myeloproliferative disorders and to stimulate original research in pursuit of new treatments and eventually a cure. As a secondary goal, the MPD Foundation hopes to use the research and therapies developed from the MPD work to benefit a broader range of blood cancers such as multiple myeloma, myelogenic leukemia and and lymphocytic leukemia. A third goal is to give patients and their families the information they need to manage their disorders and minimize the debilitating side effects until an initial cure is found.

Programs

In April 2008, the MPD Foundation awarded $750,000 to fund the third year of the MPD Research Alliance. The lead investigators are Gary Gilliland, PhD, MD, Harvard Medical School; Ronald Hoffman, PhD, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine; and Ayalew Tefferi, MD, Mayo Clinic, Rochester. The primary goal of the MPD Research Alliance is to accelerate the development of new targeted therapies that will materially benefit MPD patients. These treatments will address all the Philadelphia chromosome negative myeloproliferative disorders (Essential Thrombocythemia, Polycythemia Vera and Myelofibrosis) and include patients with and without the JAK2 mutation. (In 2005, researchers made a major breakthrough by discovering a genetic mutation - technically known as JAK2 V617F - that occurs in most PV patients and many ET and MF patients.)