The latest from ALK Positive, Inc.

ALK Positive, Inc. became a registered 501c3 (nonprofit) organization in March 2021. 

Both the ALK Positive Board of Directors and the ALK Positive Committees are comprised of volunteer members from the ALK Positive Support Group, all ALK-positive patients, or caregivers themselves.

The Board, Committees, and our new CEO, are all working together to improve the life expectancy and quality of life of ALK-positive cancer patients worldwide. 

Group photo from the 2019 ALK Summit in Atlanta, GA

Here are a few of the latest highlights of what our nonprofit has been up to since the last update:

  1. Following last year’s tremendous success with the wALK Positive Challenge, we are repeating the effort this May, aiming to raise at least $150,000. The Challenge will run during the second half of May 2022 and the ALK community will be encouraged to walk wherever they are based to raise awareness on ALK-positive lung cancer and to fundraise towards our goals and mission to improve the life expectancy and quality of life of ALK-positive patients worldwide. See our wALK Positive Challenge announcement in this newsletter and keep an eye in your inbox and our Support Group for further announcements.

  2. The selection process for our Research Grant Awards 2022 in collaboration with LUNGevity Foundation is well underway, and our Research Review Panel (part of our Medical Committee) has already put in multiple hours in meetings and calls to select the best research projects to fund with a budget of $1.5M. The first round has already been completed and the applicants with the most promising Letters of Intent have been invited to submit full proposals. The goal is to select and announce the winning projects by fall 2022. This year we are also collaborating with LCRF to fund even more research projects with a separate budget of $750,000. The first selection round for the ALK Positive – LCRF research awards is expected to be completed in the coming weeks.

  3. Our Medical Committee has been working tirelessly to build relationships with various pharmaceutical and biotech companies to speed up ALK research and to take it ‘outside the box’. We are proud to be consulting more and more companies on how to build and design their clinical trials that are expected to have a direct impact on ALK-positive patients.

  4. Our ALK Research Library now has approximately 1,000 items uploaded on our website, including review papers, case studies, clinical trial result papers, real world outcome papers, conference papers, videos, books, and more. You can access and search our Library here: https://www.alkpositive.org/alk-research

  5. Our ALK Summit 2022 team has been working hard to create another amazing Summit for us this July. Spots for in-person attendance of our ALK Summit 2022 in Denver, CO, are filling up, so if you are interested in attending in person, please look for our Summit announcement in this newsletter and register for free. Proof of vaccination is required for in-person attendance. The Summit will be offered as a hybrid event (in-person and virtual), and there is unlimited capacity for virtual attendance no matter where you are in the world.

ALK Positive NewsKirk SmithALK Positive Inc