Kennedy Puts Focus on Brain Cancer

Advocates who raise money for brain cancer research, education, and support are hoping Ted Kennedy's death will help raise awareness and draw donations.

"People feel like we've been robbed of a major figure, and something should be done about it," says Max Wallace, CEO of Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure, a Washington-based nonprofit. "Some people will be willing to help us."

Raising money for brain cancer is tough, advocates say. It doesn't have the high profile of campaigns for breast cancer or heart disease. For one, the disease is less prevalent—fewer than 18,000 people are diagnosed with brain cancer each year, Wallace estimates. About 200,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer annually.

Because it's a small market, drug companies aren't as interested in devoting research dollars to brain cancer. That's where Wallace's group comes in. The organization was set up to help entrepreneurs and funded about $7 million in research so far, he says.

Accelerate was started by former AOL Time Warner CEO Steve Case and his brother Daniel, the Hambrecht & Quist investment banker who died of brain cancer in 2002. The brothers formed the organization a year earlier after Daniel was diagnosed with brain cancer and realized little research was being done toward finding a cure.

Avastin, a drug made by biotech company Genentech Inc., was approved last spring to shrink tumors in brain cancer patients. Avastin, an existing drug that was approved earlier for other types of cancer, was the first new treatment of its kind in more than a decade.

Accelerate raises money—solely from private sources—primarily through events like the Race for Hope 5K in Washington, D.C. That event, which raised $2 million, was helped by by marketing support from American Idol's David Cook, whose brother died of brain cancer.

New York-based Brain Tumor Foundation could also use help fundraising, says managing director Ethan Schnur.

The sour economy is making it tough for Schnur's group to raise money. Nonprofits are competing for a shrinking pool of donations. The brain tumor group is trying to raise up to $5 million in the next couple of years to help pay for educational programs and free MRI screenings.

The foundation sponsors a mobile MRI testing unit that travels around New York. That program alone is expensive, costing more than $1 million a year. Schnur says the group would like to expand the program nationally to offer free or low-cost MRIs.

"When someone with the status of Senator Kennedy has brain cancer, it definitely is brought into the news a lot more than in the past," Schnur says. So far, however, that hasn't translated into more dollars for his organization.