The Hollywood community is once again uniting to support Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C), a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), which will stage its fifth biennial televised fundraising special on Friday, Sept. 9 (8:00 – 9:00 PM ET/PT / 7:00 PM CT).
Academy Award-nominated actor and founder of the Charles J Cooper Patient Support Fund, Bradley Cooper, will serve as executive producer along with renowned live, large-scale event producers Done + Dusted, working with Stand Up To Cancer’s production team. Additional stars and performers will be announced in the coming weeks.
The telecast will broadcast live from The Music Center’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC, along with American Forces Network, ASPiRE, AUDIENCE Network, Bloomberg TV, Bravo, Comedy Central, Discovery Life, EPIX, ESPNEWS, FM, FS2, FXM, Great American Country, HBO, HBO Latino, HLN, ION Television, LMN, Logo, MLB Network, National Geographic, Pivot, RLTV, SHOWTIME, Smithsonian Channel, STARZ, STARZ ENCORE, STARZ ENCORE ESPAÑOL, TBS, Tr3s, VH1, and WGN America are donating one hour of simultaneous commercial-free primetime for the telecast. In addition, the show will stream live on Yahoo and MLB.com, and will be available on Hulu.
“No one is ever fully prepared to deal with the overwhelming and complex journey that comes with a cancer diagnosis,” said Bradley Cooper, who lost his father, Charles Cooper, to lung cancer in 2011. “Stand Up To Cancer works tirelessly to support those at the forefront of the fight against cancer. SU2C’s mission, to ensure that all cancer patients become cancer survivors, is one that is very close to my heart. I am proud to join forces to make this vision a reality and to be part of this movement that is dedicated to getting lifesaving treatments to cancer patients faster.”
To date, more than $370 million has been pledged to support SU2C’s innovative model of collaborative cancer research. Since launching in 2008, Stand Up To Cancer has brought together more than 1,100 of the best and the brightest research scientists from 131 leading institutions in seven countries to work together on 19 “Dream Teams,” and six Translational Research Teams. SU2C has also funded 36 early-career, innovative scientists carrying out high-risk, potentially high-reward projects. The research is aimed at ending cancer’s reign as a leading cause of death worldwide. SU2C-funded researchers have planned, launched or completed more than 160 clinical trials involving over 8,000 patients. Work by SU2C-supported researchers has led to FDA approval of two treatments.
In the United States, 84 percent of all cancer cases and 78 percent of all cancer deaths are from cancers included in the SU2C research portfolio. One in two men and one in three women in the U.S. are expected to be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetimes, and almost eight million people worldwide die from cancer every year.
“Stand Up To Cancer has come so far since 2008,” said Katie Couric, SU2C co-founder, who will also participate in the telecast. “This effort has shown the true power of teamwork. I am so grateful for the continued support of the entertainment community, companies, organizations, our non-profit collaborators, and everyday people who have been touched by this disease, just as I have been. Thanks to their commitment, compassion and generosity, scientists are developing more effective therapies for so many cancer patients.”
In addition to Couric, current members of the SU2C Council of Founders and Advisors (CFA) include Sherry Lansing, Lisa Paulsen, Rusty Robertson, Sue Schwartz, Pamela Oas Williams, Ellen Ziffren, and Kathleen Lobb. The late Laura Ziskin, who was also a co-founder, executive produced both the 2008 and 2010 telecasts. SU2C was formally launched on May 27, 2008. Sung Poblete, Ph.D., R.N., has served as SU2C’s president since 2011.
In the past eight years, hundreds of celebrities have shown their support for SU2C through extensive participation in the biennial telecasts. Stars including Gwyneth Paltrow, Julia Roberts, Seth Rogen, Mike Myers, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hanks, Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Halle Berry, Justin Timberlake, Jessica Alba, Robert Downey Jr, Jon Hamm, Taylor Swift, Anna Kendrick, Ben Stiller, Kerry Washington, and Katie Couric have taken part in these historic broadcasts. In 2014, musical performances included: The Who, Ariana Grande, Dave Matthews Band, Lupe Fiasco, Jennifer Hudson, and Common.
For the second time, Stand Up To Cancer Canada will simultaneously broadcast the Canadian-inclusive telecast across all four major English-language Canadian broadcasters: CBC, City, CTV, and Global. Additionally, Canadian services AMI, Bloomberg TV Canada, CHCH, CHEK, Fight Network, Hollywood Suite, Joytv, NTV and TLN will also air the telecast.
“We’re thrilled to be working with the amazing SU2C team on one of the biggest telecasts in the industry calendar,” said Hamish Hamilton, Director and Executive Producer at Done + Dusted, who will direct the telecast. “It’s a rare privilege to work on a show that combines the highest levels of entertainment and talent with the opportunity to contribute to the greater good of humanity,” added Ian Stewart, President of Done + Dusted. Earlier this year, Hamilton directed the Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show starring Coldplay and featuring Bruno Mars and Beyoncé. He has received two BAFTA Awards, a Peabody Award, and both Grammy and Emmy Award nominations.
The first four SU2C telecasts took place on Sept. 5, 2008, Sept. 10, 2010, Sept. 7, 2012, and Sept. 5, 2014 and were made available to more than 190 countries. The first Canadian-inclusive SU2C telecast aired in 2014.
SU2C is a major force in immunotherapy, one of the most promising developments in cancer research today, which empowers the body’s own immune system to fight cancer cells. SU2C is supporting advancements in immunotherapy treatments for leukemia, melanoma, and cancers of the pancreas, head and neck, lung, and ovary. SU2C also supports development of precision therapies tailored to each patient’s genetic makeup in prostate cancer, melanoma, and other cancers; and new technology to accelerate research, early detection of colorectal cancer, prevention of ovarian cancer, and groundbreaking work on cancer stem cells and the epigenetics (processes that control so-called “packaging” of DNA) of cancer, among other new fields.
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the world’s first and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research, is the official Scientific Partner of Stand Up To Cancer. In the United States, AACR is responsible for administering the grants and providing scientific oversight in conjunction with the SU2C Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC). The SAC is led by Chairperson and Nobel Laureate Phillip A. Sharp, Ph.D., Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. Vice chairs of the SAC are Arnold J. Levine, Ph.D., professor emeritus of systems biology at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey; and William G. Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center in Baltimore. In Canada, the AACR International – Canada, serves as official Scientific Partner of Stand Up To Cancer Canada, which launched in 2014.The SU2C Canada Scientific Advisory Committee is co-chaired by Alan Bernstein O.C., Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) and Dr. Sharp.
As SU2C’s founding donor, Major League Baseball has provided both financial support and countless opportunities to build the Stand Up To Cancer grassroots movement by encouraging fans worldwide to get involved. In addition to MLB, SU2C’s “Visionary” donors include Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; Cancer Treatment Centers of America; Genentech, a member of the Roche Group; MasterCard; and The Sidney Kimmel Foundation. Major donors and collaborators include American Airlines, American Cancer Society, CVS Health, Fifth Third Bank, The Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research, Merck, and Rally Health. Other key supporters and collaborators include Cancer Research Institute, Cancer Research UK, Dutch Cancer Society, Farrah Fawcett Foundation, Lilly Oncology, The Laura Ziskin Family Trust, Melanoma Research Alliance, National Ovarian Cancer Coalition, Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Alliance, The Parker Foundation, Prostate Cancer Foundation, St. Baldrick’s Foundation and Van Andel Research Institute.
Collaborators in the inaugural Stand Up To Cancer Canada Dream Teams: Stand Up To Cancer Canada – Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Breast Cancer Dream Team; and Stand Up To Cancer Canada Cancer Stem Cell Dream Team include Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (CBCF), with support from CIBC; Canadian Institutes of Health Research; Cancer Stem Cell Consortium; Genome Canada; and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. AstraZeneca Canada and MasterCard are the first corporate supporters of SU2C Canada.
