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Cancer Institute Foundation

U.S. Non-Profit Organization

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Saaral 2017

Saaral 2017

Dublin High School, Dublin, CA

Breakfast with Anu
Sunday December 3, 2017 at 9:00 A.M.
Tirupathi Bhimas, Milpitas, CA

Cancer Institute Foundation held its annual mega fundraiser event Saaral with special guest Ms. Anu Hasan who graciously acted as MC for the event and promoted our cause to raise funds. Bay Area Tamil Manram co-hosted the event again this year and made a very generous donation. Local talented group VDAZE took the audience on a magical musical journey.

We want to thank all the donors who have helped us to take a step close to setting up Cancer Screening & Prevention Centers in Tamil Nadu. We also want to thank our sponsors and volunteers who made this event possible and made it a grand success.

Following morning it was Breakfast with Anu in Tirupathi Bhimas! She shared her experience, answered questions from the audience, and signed her book “Sunny Side Up”. Audience also had opportunity to spend one-on-one time with her and take exclusive photos with her.

Enjoy the promo material and photo album.

[insert phot album]
FDA Approves First Gene Therapy

FDA Approves First Gene Therapy

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration made a historic announcement on August 30, 2017 making the first gene therapy available in the United States. The FDA approved Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) for certain pediatric and young adult patients with a form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Scientists refer to Kymriah as a “living drug” because it involves
using genetically modified immune cells from patients to attack their
cancer. “We’re entering a new frontier in medical innovation with the
ability to reprogram a patient’s own cells to attack a deadly cancer,”
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a written statement.

The treatment involves removing immune system cells known as T cells
from each patient and genetically modifying the cells in the laboratory
to attack and kill leukemia cells. The genetically modified cells are
then infused back into patients. It’s also known as CAR-T cell therapy.

The treatment, which is also called CTL019, produced remission within
three months in 83 percent of 63 pediatric and young adult patients.
The patients had failed to respond to standard treatments or had
suffered relapses.

Watch the news coverage in CNN video. Read the full press release by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration here.

Kitchen Khiladi 2017

KK 2017

Preliminary Round
Sunnyvale Hindu Temple, Sunnyvale, CA

Final Round
iGrill, Santa Clara, CA

This year’s competition was conducted in partnership with Bharati Tamil Sangam. We want to thank our primary sponsor Shastha Foods and other sponsors Sangeetha restaurant, Embed UR, Madras Groceries and Tirupathi Bhimas.

35 teams competed in the preliminary round and presented different interesting recipes with Little Millet & Zucchini as the main ingredients.
Based on the judges score and the audience score top 8 teams were selected for the finals.

Finals round, live cookout competition, was held before live audience. Contestants used Brussel Sprout and Oranges as the main ingredient for the main entree and dessert.

The focus of the competition is to promote healthy diet and healthy living. This year’s competition was focused on promoting the benefits of millets. Here are the recipes from the final round. Feel free to try them and enjoy them at home!

[insert photo album]

Top 3 winning teams won gold coins! Here are the top 3 finishers of the competition.

Position Team Name Members
First Archana Archana, Hitesh
Second Medha-Vinit Medha Pimpley, Vinit Deshpande
Third Annapoorani Divya Rajalakshmi Natarajan

Here is the list of top 8 finalists from the preliminary round in no particular order. Top 7 teams were selected by the judges and the 8th team was selected by audience voting.

Team Name Members
Jayaseela Vivek Team Jayaseela Vivek
OPOS Healers Visalakshi Venkataraman, Ravi Surilikam
Annapoorani Divya Rajalakshmi Natarajan
The Pressure Cookers Radhika Venkataraman, Pattammal Ganesan, Kartik Venkataraman
Medha-Vinit Medha Pimpley, Vinit Deshpande
Spice Girls Vanee Ramesh, Geetha Mani, Deepa Karthi
Archana Archana, Hitesh
Sasireka’s Team Sasireka Satish
[insert photo album]

Sevathon 2017

Sevathon 2017
Guadalupe River Trail
San Jose, CA 95110

Cancer Institute Foundation participated in Sevathon this year also. Sevathon is walkathon that aims to set the standard as the largest social and service platform of its kind. The event brings walkers, runners, non-profits, sponsors, family & friends together. It is organized by India Community Center. CIF has been actively participating in Sevathon every year!

This year CIF raised funds for building Cancer Screening and Prevention Centers in 3 districts of Tamil Nadu. We want to thank all those who participated in Sevathon and raised funds for this great cause!

aasaiyE alai pOlE

Delhi Ganesh Play
CET Auditorium
701 Vine Street
San Jose, CA 95110

Cancer Institute Foundation staged a Tamil comedy play “aasaiyE alai pOlE” starring Stage, TV & movie fame Delhi Ganesh. This was the first time Delhi Ganesh performed on stage in the USA. Due to popular demand 2 shows were stage on the same day at 2 PM and 6 PM.

The play was written by T.T. Ravi and directed by Jayanthi Swaminathan. Local talented actors accompanied Delhi Ganesh and entertained the audience. Two shows were held – one at 2 PM and the second at 6 PM.

Here are the promotional materials and the link to photo album.

[insert photo album]