NORTHVILLE — Dr. James Kress of the KressWorks Foundation is developing an engineering-based, clinically usable treatment to cure or put into remission Ewing’s Sarcoma, a type of cancer that normally attacks patients between 5 and 25 years of age and is the second most frequent type of bone tumor in children and young adults.
The KressWorks Foundation, a nonprofit scientific research and engineering organization, was founded by Dr. Kress in 2009 in honor of his youngest sister, Patience Kress Hensley, who succumbed to Ewing’s after being in remission for 25 years.
“Our present difficulty in winning the ‘War on Cancer’ is that there is no coordinated framework to provide a complete solution to the treatment and cure of cancer,” says Dr. Kress. “In today’s cancer research and clinical institutions we find a multitude of good people working hard on individual pieces of the cancer puzzle. We have many facts but they don’t seem to be shared among the communities.”
He says the KressWorks methodology can be applied to Ewing’s, other cancers, and essentially any treatable disease that can be mathematically modeled and simulated via computer. The initial research target is Ewing’s, and once successfully applied there, the worldwide virtual organization will seek out and apply the treatment to other forms of cancer as well as other diseases.
“Our primary current project is the development of a patient-specific methodology for the systematic treatment of Ewing’s Sarcoma,” says Dr. Kress. “We have designed a methodology we believe can accomplish this. This clinical tool will allow the patient and doctor to choose a mutually agreeable treatment regimen that will simultaneously optimize treatment effectiveness, patient quality of life, and cost efficiency.
The foundation is planning a fundraiser from 6-8 p.m. Nov. 13 at Ruth’s Chris Steak House, 755 W. Maple in Troy. For information about the event or the KressWorks Foundation, or on how to donate, call 248-399-1101 or visit kressworks.org.
