The Vanguard Cancer Foundation (VCF) received a $10,000 grant from Vons Foundation, the charitable arm of the Vons Division of Safeway. The grant will fund functional profile assay at Rational Therapeutics, a Long Beach-based cancer testing laboratory that offers personalized treatment of cancer patients.
“We are grateful for the ongoing support of the Vons Foundation,” said Kimberly Yap, coordinator VCF. “This generosity allows us to continue our work helping patients who lack the financial means to have the assay and would otherwise not have access to this critical part of cancer care.”
VCF, founded in 1995 by Loretta Stamos, mother of actor John Stamos, advocates for a more personalized and intelligent approach to cancer care. For more than four decades, chemotherapy has been administered based on standard protocols—a “one size fits all” approach. Now, testing is available to assess how an individual will respond to various chemotherapies before treatment begins. This test, called a functional profile assay, can help patients and their physicians identify treatment plans tailored for the individual.
“Our thanks to the Von’s Foundation and VCF for helping to fund the assays we do at Rational Therapeutics,” said Robert Nagourney, M.D., founder of Rational Therapeutics. “Our organization was founded on the premise that every cancer patient is unique and deserves the opportunity to get better.”
In feature photo at top: Von’s Director of Pharmacy Paul Knerr, who served as the employee sponsor, presented the grant on behalf of The Vons Foundation to Kimberly Yap and Dr. Robert Nagourney
