O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center Magazine Spring 2019 | Page 12

it was fatal or that there was very little hope. Diane
couldn’t accept that. She said if she could bring the right
people together, it was an opportunity to bring more
awareness to this terrible cancer.”
Determined to find expert physicians, better treatments
and, ultimately, a cure for GCS, Diane rallied her
husband, family and friends to obtain key opinions
form prestigious gynecologic oncology centers across
the country. This eventually led her to Michael J. Birrer,
M.D., Ph.D., at Massachusetts General Hospital where
she decided to get her care. In conversations with Dr.
Birrer and with support from her family and friends,
Diane decided to create The GCS Project, a non-profit
organization aimed at supporting innovative cancer
research, advocating for GCS patients and providing
education to physicians, patients and families. They also
launched the GCS Project website as a home to patient
education, support and community for women who are
facing the same rare condition and their families.
GIVING HOPE
Family and friends of Diane
Redington continue her
advocacy, fundraising efforts
against a rare cancer
“She spent probably 30 hours a week answering emails
and encouraging women who had also received this
diagnosis,” says Roy Buchta, Diane’s husband of 36
years and treasurer of the GCS Project. “All of the
information online about GCS was written for doctors
and researchers, but there wasn’t much for a general or
patient audience. She wanted information out there to
be more hopeful and accessible beyond the scientific
and medical aspects of the disease.”
By Kendra Carter FINDING ANSWERS
Scientists know little about GCS, and, because it’s a rare
cancer, there is little reliable clinical data.
For Diane Redington, taking charge and taking care
of others came naturally. The second oldest of seven
children with a dedicated 45-year career as a nurse and
nurse practitioner, Diane worked myriad leadership
roles in healthcare, from hospitals and insurance
industry to community clinics helping underserved
populations. In 2016, Diane asked Birrer, now director of the O’Neal
Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB, about the
lack of research into GCS. Birrer told her frankly that
philanthropic giving is what allows scientists to pursue
discovery in little-researched diseases.
“She was always in charge, no matter what,” her sister
Jayne Hawe says. “If you had a problem, it became
Diane’s problem, and she was going to help you fix it.”
So in April 2015 when Diane was diagnosed with a Stage
4 gynecologic carcinosarcoma (GCS), a rare, aggressive
cancer with little research support and a dire prognosis,
her first instinct was to find a way to help other women
battling the same disease.
“After Dee went online to research her diagnosis, she
was devastated,” says Diane’s brother, John Redington.
“I remember talking with her and hearing that every
website with information about GCS said it was terminal,
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Through this website and its patient forum, Hawe says,
Diane became connected with women all over the world
seeking answers and community.
O ’ N E A L CO M PR EH EN S I V E C A N C ER C EN T ER AT UA B
“I asked him how much money, and Dr. Birrer said that
for $300,000, he would be able to launch a research
initiative that would use existing technology to
investigate the GCS tumor,” Diane wrote on the GCS
Project website. “It was then that we decided to raise
$300,000 to support targeted research in GCS. Dr. Birrer
was willing to provide the brainpower, and I knew I could
raise the funds.”
They successfully met that goal and funded the
first research into understanding the genetics and
epigenetics of GCS. Now, this project is almost done
and will provide valuable information about the genomic
structure of carcinosarcomas. The results will likely
inform the creation of key important clinical trials for
these patients.
“Diane poured so much of herself
into the GCS Project. Those of us
left behind feel honored to keep this
going, to do the best job we can to
help find answers that could lead
to better treatments and a cure for
this horrible disease.”
— Kathryn Wilt, Diane’s longtime friend
and secretary of the GCS Project
Board of Directors
The GCS Project board is still actively fundraising to
support research at UAB and other institutions across
the country conducting research into GCS. Buchta says
the board works in consult with Birrer and its newest
member Rebecca C. Arend, M.D., assistant professor
of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UAB and associate
scientist in the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center,
to find targeted research and investigators they can
help support.
A PATH FORWARD
Nearly three years after her initial diagnosis, Diane
passed away on March 15 2018.
After her passing, that same group of family and
friends Diane gathered to create the GCS Project are
continuing the organization to honor her memory.
“Diane poured so much of herself — her drive and her
passion — into the GCS Project,” says Kathryn Wilt,
Diane’s longtime friend and secretary of the GCS
Project. “Those of us left behind feel honored to keep
this going, to do the best job we can to help find
answers that could lead to better treatments and a cure
for this horrible disease.”
Buchta says carrying on the GCS Project is worthwhile,
not only because it is a fitting tribute to Diane, but
because it’s a way to help other women and their
families.
Beyond continued fundraising for research, Buchta says
the board is working to establish Centers of Excellence
in GCS, finding institutions in the United States and
the United Kingdom that are well-versed in the best
standards of care in treating GCS patients to help make
better treatments more geographically accessible.
“Diane was fortunate because she had the ability to go
a lot of places to advocate for her best care,” says John
Redington, GCS Project president. “We want to continue
her quest to establish these Centers of Excellence so
that those women who can’t travel across the country
might have access to quality care for GCS closer to
home.”
John Redington says the board plans to see this project
through and will continue to set up the organization so it
can grow and outlast the lifetimes of its co-founders.
“Our long-term goal for the GCS Project is a cure.
There’s a lot of crawling to do before we can walk, but
if we can support more discovery into the workings of
this cancer, help in establishing standard treatment
protocols so all GCS patients receive quality care across
the board, and see women diagnosed with this disease
are able to live longer with a good quality of life, we will
have accomplished a great deal.”
To learn more about the GCS Project, visit
www.gcsproject.org
UAB.EDU/CANCER
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