Mary Lou Miller wanted to help her daughter through cervical cancer.
But Michelle Gumz, Miller's daughter and an employee at UF's College of Medicine, never thought she'd have to return the favor.
Miller died in September after an eight-month battle with triple negative breast cancer, labeled TNBC, a particularly painful and aggressive form of the illness.
In honor of Miller, the Collaboration of Scientists for Critical Research in Biomedicine will hold a gala, "Set Sail for Discovery," Saturday to raise awareness and funding for TNBC.
Collaboration's President Lisa Stow, who works with Gumz in the College of Medicine, and colleagues Susan Salganik and Sara Palmer began the research organization after Miller's death. The money raised at the gala will go toward a seed grant for research on TNBC at UF.
Fifteen percent of breast cancer patients are triple negative patients, and 25 percent of the women who die from breast cancer have TNBC. TNBC is a form of the breast cancer that lacks the three common receptors (estrogen, progesterone and HER2, or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) found in breast cancer tumors, which chemotherapy targets to get rid of the cancer, Stow said.
Without these three receptors, the chemotherapy has no target and no way to kill the tumor, she explained. After living with the knowledge of her cancer for about a month, Gumz said, her mother found out her cancer spread to her brain, like it does in almost 40 percent of TNBC cases. She died six weeks later.
"I told her not to worry," Gumz said. "'It'll all be fine,' I kept repeating."
Gumz said oncologists told her it wouldn't have mattered if they found the cancer earlier; she would have died anyway. But Gumz was skeptical.
"The earlier you find it, the longer life you have," Gumz said.
Stow said there is little known about effective treatment for the TNBC tumors. But the Collaboration hopes to change that by raising enough funds at the gala to do research at UF.
"[TNBC] probably has something they can target," Gumz said referring to chemotherapy treatments. "They just don't know what it is yet."
The nautical-themed gala will feature a string quartet, a ballet performance by Dance Alive, a silent auction and a keynote address by Dr. Edith Perez, a cancer researcher for TNBC.
"If they had found one lesion, they could've done something," Gumz said. "It's so important to raise awareness. Maybe we could have had a few more months. Maybe she could've held her grandchildren longer."
The gala will be held at the Cancer and Genetic Research Complex at 7 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $50 for students and $125 for general admission. For more information, visit www.CSCRB.org.
