Mayo Clinic’s 5-Year Fundraising Campaign Raises Research Funds for Mesothelioma

Mayo Clinic, the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world, announced it raised $1.35 billion in its first comprehensive fundraising campaign, and achieved this milestone in only 5 years. One area that will benefit from the funds is the research into the use of the measles virus to treat mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma is a serious cancer that occurs in individuals exposed to airborne asbestos fibers. Even small amounts of asbestos and infrequent exposure can create a risk for contracting mesothelioma or other asbestos-related diseases. Mesothelioma is highly aggressive and is resistant to many cancer treatments. Currently there is no known cure for the disease.

The Mayo Clinic Schulze Center for Novel Therapeutics, a virtual three-site center that “is translating laboratory findings into vanguard methods to treat cancer,” was established in 2007 with a gift from The Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation. Richard M. Schulze is the founder and chairman of Best Buy, and his wife Sandra Schulze died in 2001 of mesothelioma.

Schulze hopes that at the center “some cancers will be cured and that Mayo’s talented scientists and physicians will find a way.”