Behind the laboratory coats and test tubes, behind the micoscopes and charts, are real people with a real passion to cure cancer.  Here, we highlight their stories.

Passion Behind the Research Highlight: Dr. Danny Welch

Research is often described as "good days and bad months" - long periods of uncertainty, followed by precious, enlightening little moments that make it all worth it. "It's these moments that inspire me to keep trying, day in and day out, to find a way to stop the monster known as cancer," says Dr. Danny Welch, Director of the NFCR Center for Metastasis Research.

Dr. Welch, his team, and their collaborators discovered six out of the 27 known genes that stop the spread of cancer. Like all discoveries, this didn't happen overnight.

Dr. Welch's research focuses on how to stop "metastasis", or the spread of cancer in the body. An estimated 90% of all cancer patients die from metastasis, yet less than 1% of all research is focused on it. When asked why scientists shy away from metastasis research, Dr. Welch explains, "It's hard. It doesn't come with immediate gratification. In fact, there are only a handful of people masochistic enough to do it."

So what keeps him going - working in the trenches, searching for a way to stop this elusive disease?

It's knowing that the young man he told 10 years ago, "you should get checked out" is still alive today, only because he went to the doctor that day and they found his stomach tumor early enough, before it had metastasized. It's knowing that the woman who heard Dr. Welch speak on how to do a self-exam went home and found a lump in her breast - and that self-exam saved her life. It's the little boy who said, "Daddy, the spot on your back looks like the picture Dr. Welch showed us," and discovered his father had melanoma. And today, Danny Welch keeps motivated for a much more personal reason - his mother, suffering from cancer in hospice.

When Dr. Welch first realized that he could stop the spread of cancer by pinpointing genes 14 years ago, major funding agencies called his idea "too risky" and turned down his requests for funding. But a meeting with the president of NFCR, an innovation-oriented cancer charity, brought Dr. Welch the research funding he needed and has continually supported his research for more than 12 years. The genes he has found can stop the lethal spread of multiple types of cancer including melanoma, breast cancer, and ovarian carcinoma.

You can be a part of these exciting new developments in cancer research. Help Dr. Welch continue his work to stop the spread of cancer by supporting NFCR.  To support Dr. Danny Welch's research, please fill out the form below, or call us at 1-800-321-CURE (2873). 

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