The Tom Zangas Memorial Lung Cancer Foundation, a Manhasset-based nonprofit, donated $75,000 this year to fund lung cancer research.
In its fourth year of raising funds, the foundation awarded $50,000 to the Lung Cancer Research Foundation, which supports 22 research institutes, including the Weill Cornell Medical Center, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
The group also gave a $25,000 grant to Dr. Abraham Chachoua, of the NYU Langone Cancer Center, for his studies involving immunotherapy and drug treatment to fight cancer cells. Chachoua is the doctor who treated the foundation’s namesake, Tom Zangas, who died at age 38 from lung cancer.
Zangas was a triathlete who didn’t smoke, and his parents, Leonard and Penelope Zangas, started the foundation in 2011 following his death.
Leonard Zangas recently reconnected with his son’s former doctor while he attended a fundraising event at the Langone Center. He said he heard about the clinical studies Chachoua was conducting and wanted to aid his research.
To date, the Zangas Foundation has been able to raise $225,000 for lung cancer research, and this year’s contribution represents a growth in sponsorship.
“We’ve got more people participating, more sponsorships, and also the amount of monies we’re collecting has grown, so we’re looking forward to expanding it,” Leonard Zangas said.
The foundation is hosting a 5K Run/1K Walk on Oct. 22 at the North Hempstead Beach Park in Port Washington. Through co-sponsors like Archangel Michael Church, which Zangas attended, the foundation gathers a large portion of its funds through the annual event.
“All we need is some good weather,” Zangas said.
In previous years, Zangas Foundation grants have gone to other research centers, including one to Yale University for a program studying the behavior of cancer cells and how they adapt in the lung. At the time of the grant, Yale’s program was headed by Dr. Don Nguyen, who sought a therapy to block the process of metastasis of cancer tissue in the lung. Nguyen was able to secure an additional $2 million in funding following the grant.
Leonard Zangas said over the five years he has been involved in the foundation, he’s seen some progress in lung cancer research. While a cure isn’t close, research has led to developments in treatment, he said.
“I think it’s been a wonderful experience, and we get a lot of satisfaction out of it,” Zangas said.
