The 14th annual Seena Magowitz Golf Classic — a multi-million-dollar fundraising spectacular supporting pancreatic cancer research at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) — is set for Aug. 27-29.
More than 250 golfers and guests are expected at this three-day event, which features a Saturday night baseball game at historic Fenway Park, a Sunday gala dinner at the Boston Harbor Hotel, and Monday morning golf at the Tedesco Country Club in Marblehead, Mass., northeast of Boston.
This is the Golf Classic’s first year in Boston. It previously has been held in Phoenix and Orlando. The event has helped raise more than $7 million over the years.
“Having the Golf Classic based in Boston will provide a new opportunity to raise awareness surrounding this disease throughout New England and across the upper Atlantic seaboard,” said Roger E. Magowitz, founder of the Seena Magowitz Foundation, named for his mother, who passed away from pancreatic cancer.
This year’s Honorary Chairman of the Magowitz Golf Classic is David Dombrowski, Boston Red Sox President of Baseball Operations. The baseball game during this year’s Classic features the Red Sox vs. the reigning World Series Champion Kansas City Royals. The game’s ceremonial first pitch will be auctioned online in July to raise additional research funds.
Dombrowski is a long-standing member of TGen’s Pancreatic Cancer National Advisory Council, a group of business leaders who assist the TGen Foundation in raising funds to support research and clinical trials for pancreatic cancer. In recent years, their efforts have led to a new treatment regimen that holds the promise of improved patient survival.
“We are extremely pleased to have David Dombrowski as the honorary chair and about moving the Seena Magowitz Golf Classic to Boston,” said Michael Bassoff, President of the TGen Foundation. “We hope to attract a whole new region of participants, as well as showcase a beautiful part of the country and all that the Boston region has to offer.”
Funding raised by the Golf Classic has been directed to research and clinical trials led by Dr. Daniel Von Hoff, TGen’s Distinguished Professor and Physician-in-Chief, who will deliver the gala’s keynote address about the progress being made and his vision for the future — to detect pancreatic cancer early and ultimately find a cure.
This year, pancreatic cancer will claim the lives of nearly 42,000 Americans, surpassing breast cancer as the nation’s third-leading cause of cancer-related death.
The Seena Magowitz Foundation, previous Golf Classic Honorary Chairman Gary Fazio, Mattress Firm executives and employees, and Leggett & Platt President Karl Glassman, have provided the foundational support for an ongoing series of revolutionary clinical trials that build on TGen’s previous success in setting the nation’s standard for treating this formidable disease.
One of these, called the TGen Triple, has showed amazing progress. More than half of the patients in this clinical trial saw their pancreas tumors shrink by more than 30 percent. An additional 20 percent – 1 in 5 patients – saw their tumors dissolve completely; complete remission of an advanced cancer
A new clinical trial, called the Grand Slam, which began in April, takes the treatments successful in the TGen Triple, and adds two key therapeutic agents that will push towards the goal of attaining remission in 100 percent of patients.
Pancreatic cancer’s lethal nature stems from its propensity to rapidly spread to other organs, especially the liver and lungs. Because no early screening test exists, the disease often goes undiagnosed until its late stages, when surgery is often no longer an option, making it difficult to treat.
Importantly, as a result of TGen clinical research, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2013 approved the use of albumin-bound paclitaxel in combination with gemcitabine as a front-line therapy for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. The Seena Magowitz Foundation helped fund the Abraxane clinical trials.
In addition to engaging New England area supporters, event organizers expect to continue attracting major support from the home furnishings and bedding industries.
For more information about the Golf Classic, visit www.seenamagowitzfoundation.org. Prospective sponsors, participants and dinner attendees may contact: Roger Magowitz at 602-524-7636 or roger@seenamagowitzfoundation.org; or Liz McBeth, event director, at 757-773-3622 or liz@seenamagowitzfoundation.org.
