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Florida Rep. Anne Gannon is all too familiar with the feeling of helplessness that comes when a loved one is diagnosed with a brain tumor. Her husband, Jim, died of a brain tumor in 2005. During his illness, the family realized treatment options were limited. So representative Gannon worked on a bill in the Florida Legislature that provides five-hundred-thousand dollars for the creation of the Florida Center for Brain Tumor Research to develop brain tumor treatments and cures. Governor Jeb Bush signed the bill into law on June 20.
State Rep. Anne Gannon, D-Delray Beach
"Hopefully what we'll see is a way to improve treatment and to eventually find a cure for these brain tumors because, frankly, there is no cure for a glioblastoma brain tumor and you eventually die. I think that is probably one of the hardest things that a person who's terminally ill has to face."
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The Florida Center for Brain Tumor Research is located at the McKnight Brain Institute at the University of Florida. The new center will work with hospitals statewide to collect and analyze tumor specimens, and then disseminate data on the characteristics of brain tumors.
Dr. Dennis Steindler / Executive Director, UF McKnight Brain Institute
"These tumor specimens will represent a treasure trove for basic and clinical scientists who're conducting studies at the cell and molecular level to try to understand how brain tumors develop and grow and how we might be able to use this knowledge to disarm or even destroy them."
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New brain tumors arise in more than two-hundred-thousand Americans each year, and they are the second most common cause of cancer-related death in people up to age thirty-five. People in their sixties face the highest risk each year; one of every five-thousand people in this age group develops a brain tumor. Those assembled here hope that work accomplished at the Florida Center for Brain Tumor Research will help those numbers go down in the future.
Indeed, the ultimate goal is to find a cure for brain tumors.
Dr. Bill Friedman / Chairman, UF Department of Neurosurgery
"We hope that together with our colleagues around the state of Florida who're vitally interested in brain tumor research and cures, that we will seek, strive and find that cure, and we will not yield to any of the obstacles."
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At the University of Florida McKnight Brain Institute, I'm Mike Garrison
