The Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund supports innovative cancer research initiatives through its partnerships.

The Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund supports innovative cancer research initiatives through its partnerships with Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Both organizations bring together highly skilled clinical and research teams to improve outcomes by applying research breakthroughs in the lab directly to patient care. Support from the Piccolo Fund has led to important advances in both the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, benefiting thousands of patients since the fund’s inception. After initial success in increasing survival rates in patients with embryonal cell carcinoma , the rare cancer that took Brian Piccolo’s life in 1970, the fund chose to focus on breast cancer research. The American Cancer Society predicts that in 2009 more than 190,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed and more than 40,000 women will die from breast cancer. In fact, breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the United States, other than skin cancer. It is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, after lung cancer. Thankfully, breast cancer death rates have been decreasing. This is due in large part to breast cancer research that has led to improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of patients. The fund has also committed selected funds to promising new research in lung cancer.