Leukemia is a malignant disease. But it is treatable and increasingly curable. Or more precisely: “The various forms of leukemia are,” because there are very different kinds of leukemia and lymphoma. And the various therapies developed by medical research are equally specific. In the last 10 years, knowledge about the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment has increased significantly.
In view of this, it is very important that a comprehensive and timely diagnosis is made and the respective disease is correctly classified (according to the 2017 WHO classification). However, the diagnostics themselves are quite complex and based on a combination of very different methods: cytomorphology and cytochemistry, histology and immunohistology, immunophenotyping, traditional chromosome analysis, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and molecular genetic methods for the detection of changes in individual genes. For many patients, a combination of these methods is necessary and sensible.
Against this backdrop, there is an urgent need to establish and optimize diagnostic procedures.
We have taken it upon ourselves to make the choice of the best possible therapy a standard by promoting and improving diagnostics. This should give the greatest possible number of patients with leukemias and lymphomas access to optimal and targeted treatment and achieve an increasing number of cures.
The task is complex for the reasons described above. This is because, in addition to ensuring the correct diagnostics, it is also necessary to provide the various simultaneously required methods/equipment as well as the corresponding findings. And last but not least, understandable explanations for doctors and patients are needed. Furthermore, it must be ensured that the methods offered can be accredited. The timely and proper development of a reliable and suitable infrastructure that is available worldwide is an extensive task that requires intensive efforts. This is where our Foundation’s activities come into play.
The creation of understandable findings for doctors and patients is a decisive step on the way to the right therapy. We are also working on that.
We carry out projects with the following objectives:
We award scholarships for research and development in the area of user-oriented routine diagnostics with the aim of implementation in daily practice.
We generate and collect funds for institutions with the same objectives for the following purposes:
