Mary Ann and Joseph Anselmo's "Through the Fire" tells the Inspirational story of her fight against Cancer.

Researchers treat brain cancer patient with skin cancer drug

Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) are exploring a new form of clinical trial called a basket trial, which is designed to examine responses to drugs based on specific mutations in patients’ tumors rather than where their cancer originated.

The study, published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, consisted of 122 patients from 23 cancer centers around the world, and participants were diagnosed with either non-small cell lung, colorectal, ovarian or brain cancers. Each patient had his or her tumor genome sequenced so doctors could determine which mutation to target through precision medicine, according to a news release.  

One patient in the study, MaryAnn Anselmo, had been diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma in 2013. Anselmo’s physicians decided to target the BRAF mutation in her tumor, and treated it with a drug recently approved for BRAF mutations in melanoma patients, TIME reported. Two years later, Anselmo is tumor free.

“This study is the first deliverable of precision medicine,” Dr. Jose Baselga, study author and MSK physician-in-chief and chief medical officer, said in the news release. “We have proven that histology-independent, biomarker-selected basket studies are feasible and can serve as a tool for developing molecularly targeted cancer therapy.”
“While we can— and should— be cautiously optimistic, this is what the future of precision medicine looks like,” he said.

Hyman told TIME that the basket study focused on BRAF mutations allows for researchers to study cancer patients as a group, despite their different diagnoses. The results found that 70 percent of patients with non-small cell cancer saw their tumors shrink by at least 30 percent in length, with the best response rate among patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Researchers noted that the results of the study demonstrated that drugs can reach patients beyond the current approved use, but do not work for everyone. They suggest the results show the benefits of basket studies and call for more work to be done with these types of trials.
“One of the things that gets lost when we talk averages and medians is how many patients benefit and for how long,” Hyman told TIME. “There is a tremendous range and a concern that promoting the best successes sets the bar very high. But it also lets people know that things are not entirely hopeless, that there are people who have tremendous benefit from therapies and not get completely caught up in medians and averages.”

Reposted From Fox News

MaryAnn Anselmo Competes in the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Competition: SASSAY Awards

 

Discover the jazz greats of tomorrow today at this exciting afternoon of performances by the five finalists in this seventh annual event, initiated in 2012 by NJPAC and WBGO in honor of Newark’s “divine” jazz icon.


Please VOTE HERE  and and share each of MaryAnn's 4 songs submitted to the competition.

Maryann Anselmo will be competing with rising vocalists from around the globe for the chance to perform in the finals of the competition, also known as “The SASSY Awards.” The only event of its kind, this competition for outstanding jazz singers gives the winner a platform for embarking on a career in the music business.

Singers will be evaluated by a panel of special guest judges, and rated for vocal quality, musicality, technique, performance, individuality, artistic interpretation, and ability to swing. The grand prize winner will receive a $5,000 cash prize.

This year’s judges include multi-GRAMMY-winning bassist Christian McBride, NJPAC’s Jazz Advisor; six-time GRAMMY nominated jazz vocalist-composer Nnenna Freelon; Mary Ann Topper, President of the Jazz Tree, Inc. artist management; WBGO Jazz 88.3FM radio personality Sheila Anderson, and trumpeter, conductor and composer Jon Faddis.

Voting Ends Oct 3, 2018 2:00 PM Read more 

Story Merchant Books Prepares to Launch MaryAnn and Joseph Anselmo's Through Fire and Rain!

Story Merchant Books is proud to be publishing MaryAnn and Joseph Anselmo with Lisa Cerasoli’s Through Fire and Rain. Look for it in the next week—an inspiring true story of a couple who survived and triumphed over four huge life-changing catastrophes with their love and spirit intact and thriving.

IN 2012, MARYANN ANSELMO WAS at the height of her career, headlining at Chico’s House of Jazz—the premiere venue in New Jersey for jazz artists. It was a sold-out show. The love of her life and husband, Joe, was by her side when she brought the house down. Her dreams were becoming a reality. Two days later she lost everything including the will to live when her son Dustin died unexpectedly.

“I’ve never thought of myself as a strong person…. After all, I’m just a jazz singer.”

MARYANN

A month later, MaryAnn and her father, Artie, suffered a devastating car accident. Dad was going to be okay, but she shattered dozens of bones, and had a string of strokes she suffered while in a coma. This ultimately left her without the use of her left vocal cord.

“My girl had a string of strokes. She was in a coma for weeks. I believed in God, I trusted Him, but we had just recovered from the Crash of 2008, then Dustin died, and now this. It’s too much. She doesn’t deserve this. No one does.”

JOE

With Joe’s love and constant support, MaryAnn worked hard to recover, even starting from scratch with her longtime vocal coach. She was determined to sing again. Then in mid-November of 2013, she was given eighteen months to live, diagnosed with a high-grade glioblastoma—a later stage brain tumor.

“Everything happened so fast—the diagnosis, the surgery. chemo and radiation. Joe kept saying, ‘It’s going to be fine, Mare, it’s going to be fine.’ And I believed him. Even when we had to stop the chemo because it was killing me, I knew I’d be okay.”

MARYANN

Joe did not know it was going to be okay, but he needed MaryAnn to feel secure, to feel loved, to have faith. Joe, for the second time in less than two years, left a job he had built from the ground up since the crash, and made finding a way to save his wife his life’s mission. He called all over the world—no doctor too far, no medical procedure out of reach. What Joe discovered was a new type of procedure called genomic sequencing. It fell under the category of Precision Medicine, and it was going to change their lives; he felt it.

Through Fire and Rain is a story of deep loss and salvation found through love, prayer, and faith in the future of medicine. They had made it through the fire. They had survived so much. This was just a little rain…. Joe Anselmo believed that, and his wife, MaryAnn was convinced of one thing: Joe’s love for her was without boundaries. She had seen this kind of love before in her parents. Her dreams of becoming a world-renowned jazz singer was still “in the works.” For decades it had been, but she had found something perfect in this imperfect world—the love of a great man—and this is what would save her life.

MaryAnn Anselmo recently spoke at The 2016 National Brain Tumor Society event in New Jersey.

***

“…In 2013, I was diagnosed with something I couldn’t even pronounce—a high grade glioblastoma multiforme. The prognosis was 18 to 24 months. Like I said, I don’t believe in self pity, but I do believe in miracles…. For I am still here.

I went through surgery and radiation like most cancer patients, but it nearly killed me. I had no other options until my tissue was genetically sequenced and a mutation found in melanoma patients was discovered in my brain. Joe researched and I got into a clinical trial for this mutation, and 2 ½ years later I am thrilled to say that I am tumor free!

Your body and brain can take a lot. Fight through this and you can fight through anything. Don’t ever give up! For there is hope.

With the grace of God and the power of science you will get through this. The future is here!”

*** 

Joe and MaryAnn don’t believe in coincidences; they believe in the power of God and Precision Medicine. That is why they’re sharing their story with the world. They believe this happened to MaryAnn so that they can create awareness, bring hope, change they way the word “cancer” is perceived, and open up minds to new possibilities.

Shortly after Dustin’s untimely death in 2012, Joe and MaryAnn created The Bungalow Foundation. They created this to initially help people with depression through music and art, but then expanded it to become a public charity that funds bio-medical Precision Medicine Initiatives by way of grants to post-doctoral and clinical research fellows working with academic, medical or research institutions. This is their mission.

Through Fire and Rain, their memoir of impossible loss and deep faith is a story for all people from every walk of life. Just like cancer, their story does not discriminate. Unlike cancer, they will never be defeated. Their purpose is to share their story with the world in the hopes that more people see the possibilities in Precision Medicine: Believe that the future is now!