The 13^th annual QLD Corporate Games will finish with a bang this evening after a weekend of sporting enthusiasm, friendly competition, and of course, cancer fundraising for the ACRF.

As the Games’ official charity, the ACRF is delighted to be attending the Corporate Games Cocktail party tonight (and speaking more personally with the many staff and company representatives now that they’ve hung up their runners and football boots).

The QLD Corporate Games was a fantastic success! The ACRF would like to congratulate Walt Hiltner and Ellen Goff for such seamless organisation and for generating a fantastic community spirit. We also thank the Queensland government and the other major sponsors Canon, Marriot Brisbane, 4BC Radio, Scody and OKI.

It was a pleasure to visit the sporting grounds at the University of Queensland over the weekend (a location in which we are particularly proud to have two ACRF-funded cancer research facilities) and watch the 5000 staff from the finance, mining, retail, tourism and government sectors going head-to-head for their health, fitness, and a fantastic cause.

The ACRF would like to thank Shelley Pratt, director and designer of SHELLTER Maternity Wear, for fighting cancer through her Organic Thoughts and Action maternity clothing range.

SHELLTER is donating $10 from every Organic Thoughts t-shirt and $20 from every Organic Actions dress to world-class cancer research during the months of May and June.

Shelley’s involvement in cancer fundraising reflects a wider trend of corporate and company involvement in the cancer charity sector, and we’re thrilled to have her support.

“I believe the ACRF and their mission runs parallel with SHELLTER’s philosophy including sustainability, ethics and supporting small businesses hoping for big and positive changes for the future,” she told us.

The ACRF is thrilled to have received 12 applications for world-class cancer research after submissions for ACRF grants in 2012 closed last Friday.

Together, the applications represent a need for $41.7 million in cutting-edge technologies and/or capital works for the development of high-tech facilities and collaborative initiatives. It is a strong indication of how important it is for the ACRF and other bodies to continue funding research that has the potential to make significant break-throughs in cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

Six applications have been received from Brisbane, with two each in Sydney and Melbourne, and then one more in each of Adelaide and Perth. The scope of works is truly impressive, and it’s fantastic to see the research expertise within so many Australian states represented in this mix.

A new study has found that a particular gene is being switched off in the cancerous cells of up to 15% of pancreatic cancers.

New drugs are already being tested to turn the gene back on, thereby working to stop the spread of cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive and lethal types of cancer, and this discovery paves the way towards a new class of drugs which target this gene, thus treating some types of pancreatic cancer much more effectively.

The study was published in the journal ‘Nature’ following research which revealed that when the gene Usp9x was ‘switched off’ in mice, cells started to grow out of control. It has been called a ‘brake gene’ because it seems to have a key role in natural cell death.

Late last year, a group called Metal for Cancer released a new digital single called ‘Lets Unite in Rock’ featuring an all-star cast exclusively written and produced by Henrik Flyman to raise funds for cancer research.

Cancer is a disease that touches people from all walks of life and the heavy metal community is no exception. Many Hard Rock and Heavy Metal legends have sadly lost their battle to this devastating disease.

The song starts off with a riff which pays homage to the late Ronnie James Dio and lyrically uses typical heavy metal imagery describing the heavy metal community uniting to defeat cancer which in the song is portrayed as ‘the beast’.