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07/18/2008 Sarcoma-Awareness Bike Tour
Last update on: 01/19/2009
A campaign by the EU project "Overcoming Cancer with Research:
Eleven nations biked with team spirit as signs of awareness for the St. Anna Kinderkrebsforschungs-Institut (Children's Cancer Research Institute)
(Vienna, 2008-18-07). In the frame of the EU-funded communication project "Overcoming Cancer with Research", cancer patients and former patients, amongst them adults, children and adolescents, staff of the Children's Cancer Research Institute and concerned participants, cycled from Greifenstein to the Donauinsel, Vienna, to raise awareness for a rare and malignant form of cancer, sarcoma.
This activity was aimed at publically raising awareness for sarcoma, a type of cancer in bones and soft tissue. Sarcoma makes up to 15% of all cases of cancer within childhood and adolescence. In adulthood this disease makes up only about one percent.
View photos of our event in the gallery or on flickr.
Early diagnosis is vital
The international team
"Particularly important for a successful treatment is early diagnosis"
explains Dr. Michael Dworzak, physician at the St. Anna Children’s Hospital and partner of the EC-funded project OVERCOMING CANCER WITH RESEARCH. Sometimes sarcoma are confused as sporting injuries. If they are recognised too late, suggests Dworzak, it is very often not possible to remove the tumours completely or there may have been a metastasising in other body regions.
Press Work in Greifenstein
(from left to right) Bernert Martin, Kurier, Andreas Zoubek, Sandra Brezina -Krivda, PR
Former Patients report
Martin Lüftl, survivor
"The survival of cancer is a triumph. However, one faces many difficulties during job application, one is cast out. Thus, many conceal their condition"
reports Martin Lüftl, who at the age of twenty, shortly before the begin of his military service, was diagnosed with an osteosarcoma on his left leg. His therapy lasted a year. The primary reasons for his social discrimination and his difficulties of finding a place within society, were doubts about his physical and psychological capabilities.
Alexander Löhr, today medical and information-technology student, was fourteen when diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma on his left leg. During his treatment he tried to motivate himself: " I will get my tennis racket back". Yet the fear of not being as fit as before after the disease troubled him deeply during his ten-month stay at the St. Anna Children’s hospital. Today, the 25 year-old is considered cured.
Details of the Sarcoma Awareness Bike Tour
Bruce Shriver, Funder of the US-Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative, Sandra Brezina -Krivda, St. Anna Kinderkrebsforschung - Organisation
The event was part of many worldwide network-events in the context of the "international sarcoma-awareness week" (12.-19. July 2008): This global Sarcoma Awareness Week was initiated by the Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative based in New York, USA. The intiative demands activities in order to improve the quality of life of sarcoma patients.
Primary Goals: To educate, raise an awareness for the disease and generate funds to support the biomedical research and clinical studies.
People were active, according to interests and abilities, all across the globe during this week: they walked, climbed, hiked, jogged, biked, swam, in oder to raise awareness for sarcoma and the research of the importance of the research of this disease. Eleven nations, in total 5.000 people, took part to raise awareness for this disease.
The bike tour passed Danube across Linz, Krems, the Wachau and Vienna. The tour was constructed in such a way, to allow families with children and the less athletically experienced to take part.
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Thanks to our sponsors
Almdudler | Columbus Fitness | Donauradfreunde | FBDS digital copy shop | Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative | Krebspatienten für Krebspatienten | McDonald's | Österreichische Kinder-Krebs-Hilfe | RadLand | Römerquelle | Pago | Zantho
EC-Funded Communication
What is sarcoma?
It is a cancer of the connective tissues, such as nerves, muscles, cartilage, joints, bone, or blood vessels. It can arise anywhere in the body, frequently hidden deep in the limbs.
How prevalent are sarcomas?
About 1% of all adult cancers are sarcomas. Up to 15% of all children’s cancers are sarcomas. There are hundreds of thousands of patients and their families struggling with sarcoma world wide.
How are sarcomas treated?
When possible, sarcoma patients have surgery to remove the cancer. Surgery is often combined with chemotherapy and/or radiation.
Why are sarcomas dangerous?
They are often misdiagnosed. Sometimes they are thought to be sports injuries. When they are diagnosed, they may be large and difficult to remove surgically and they may have metastasized. Many sarcomas resist current treatments. Therefore, ongoing research is of highest importance.
More details and a video that gives you basic information about sarcoma can be found under: http://www.sarcomahelp.org/index.html or in the PDF “Sarcoma Facts"
View the presentation “A forgotten cancer”
