The University of Virginia (UVA) has announced a $5.75 million gift in support of research aimed at accelerating development of new treatments for rare blood cancers and providing patients with access to cutting-edge clinical trials.

The anonymous gift will establish a fund as part of an initiative at the UVA Cancer Center to bolster rare blood cancer research for which doctors and scientists often struggle to obtain funding. To that end, the fund will support efforts at basic research and drug development, establish a training fellowship, fund a monthly lecture series for faculty and staff, and enable the university to help subsidize patient travel to participate in clinical trials. In addition, three $250,000 grants will foster collaboration with researchers at different institutions.

Funded projects will include research into lymphocytic leukemia to develop new approaches to improve outcomes for patients with T-cell cancer and other malignancies, development of therapeutics for peripheral and cutaneous T-cell lymphomas, and clinical studies to enhance treatment for mantle cell lymphoma.

“Individually, these cancers affect relatively small numbers of people when compared with other cancers, but collectively, they touch the lives of countless patients and families,” said K. Craig Kent, CEO of UVA Health and executive vice president for health affairs at the university. “We are deeply grateful for this generous gift that will allow us to conduct important, groundbreaking cancer research and develop new treatments that will benefit patients around the world.”

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