Ibc Network Foundation

“Terry Arnold, Chair and Laurie Main, Treasurer review the Form 990 prepared by the CPA before filing.”

“No other documents are available to the public.”

“The IBC Network Foundation is intensely focused on funding high-quality research regarding inflammatory breast cancer and triple negative breast cancer. Inflammatory breast cancer is an orphaned form of breast cancer, due to its rareness and high fatally rate. Typically striking younger women, at a late stage presentation, 30% of the women are also diagnosed with triple negative. This combination is highly difficult to treat successfully. In 2021, we funded three times for two different projects and offered matching grants to two major IBC centers. This year at Ingrid-Vanderbilt, we have continued to fund an ongoing project of $100,000 for the researcher, Justin Balko, and his team for the study of how triple-negative and IBC interrelate. This year at Duke University, we completed funding with the donation of $37,500 to support Gayathri Devi, Ph.D., Program Director, Duke Consortium for IBC, and her team's research in the area of developing models to characterize inflammatory breast cancer metastasis to the brain. This year we offered two matching grants of $5,000 each to Dana Farber and MD Anderson Cancer Center for their respective IBC programs for their institution fundraising challenges. Since we have been unable to have physical meetings to help assist patients, we have been hosting a series of Zoom calls, Zoom Across the USA, to help patients who are living with IBC be better connected to the best possible research and care options. We are especially proud to have completed the drafting of the course for the IBC Learning Academy. This course was written in cooperation with MD Anderson's Morgan Welch Clinic for Inflammatory Breast Cancer. The course was offered in real time and is now available online for interested parties to take worldwide. The course is offered at no cost. It is known that rare disease advocacy can improve patient outcomes while bridging the gap between patients/caregivers, healthcare providers, policymakers, and the scientific community. Our goal is to reach a diverse target audience of patients and professionals with a passion for improving the lives of those affected by IBC. Trained advocates will be empowered to promote the unique needs of IBC patients by improving access to specialty care, increasing education around clinical trials, and participating in lobbying. Advocates may also serve on decision-making boards of local, state, and national organizations, committees, and Institutional Review Boards. We have had over 50 people complete the course.”