Estee Lauder’s Son Gives $5M To U Of A To Fight Cancer

TUCSON – The University of Arizona Cancer Center recently received a $5 million gift from Leonard A. Lauder, son of Estee Lauder herself and a retired Estee Lauder Co. chairman. The gift will be used in the fight against ovarian cancer, which took Leonard Lauder’s wife Evelyn from him in 2011.

Lauder's gift will further the work of U of A cancer researcher Dr. David Alberts, who is working on a cure for ovarian, breast, prostate, colon and skin cancers, in addition to chemoprevention. But ovarian cancer research takes precedence for Alberts. “Curing ovarian cancer has been my guiding light for more than 45 years,” he wrote in a statement.

The treatments Alberts has pioneered for advanced ovarian cancers are intraperitoneal chemotherapy, in vitro tumor cell chemosensitivity testing, and maintenance chemotherapy. His research, funded by the National Cancer Institute, has produced 18 patents, and he has cofounded four biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies based in Arizona.

And Lauder's gift will additionally help Alberts' research. “This gift is already making a seminal impact on my laboratory-based research,” Alberts explained. “For example, we have initiated a new project to develop an inexpensive home kit to measure concentration of vitamin D3 in the blood. We are also attempting to identify and prioritize those nutrients and physical activities that may prolong complete remissions in patients."

About 1 in 78 women will develop ovarian cancer. The ovarian cancer survival rate has risen sixfold since the late 1960s, the U of A reported.