Stand Up To Cancer history: founders and the telecast

Stand Up To Cancer, or SU2C, has an unusual start for a cancer nonprofit. It was not founded by doctors or scientists. It was founded by nine women working in entertainment.

SU2C credits its 2008 founding to nine women, including Katie Couric and Sherry Lansing. Their careers in entertainment gave them access to big networks and famous faces.

SU2C says the founders wanted to use that access on purpose. Their goal was to "harness the power of the entertainment industry" for cancer research.

SU2C's founders saw a specific problem in cancer research. SU2C describes its Dream Teams as researchers from different fields working together. The founders wanted more teamwork across fields and institutions.

Their stated goal was bold. They wanted to turn "every cancer patient into a long-term survivor." That is a hope for the whole field, not a promise to any one patient. SU2C's own materials present it that way.

What made SU2C famous was not a research paper. It was a TV broadcast. Its first fundraising special aired at the same time on ABC, CBS, and NBC. That kind of joint broadcast is called a "roadblock."

This is rare in television. SU2C's founders used their industry ties to make it happen.

SU2C says its most recent broadcast, in 2023, reached more than 55 media platforms across the U.S. and Canada. SU2C also reports that more than 1,100 celebrities have taken part in its awareness work over the years.

SU2C reports pledging more than $800 million to cancer research since 2008. Instead of funding one scientist at a time, SU2C mostly funds what it calls "Dream Teams." These are groups of researchers from different places, working together on one question instead of competing alone.

SU2C says its Dream Teams have contributed to nine major scientific breakthroughs, including FDA approvals for therapies for melanoma, breast cancer, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer, and sarcoma. These are SU2C's own figures.

SU2C can point to a specific way of funding research: teams working together, not alone. SU2C links that model to FDA-approved treatments across several cancer types. It also raises public awareness through its telecasts, which can help patients understand where research money and attention are going right now.

SU2C does not run hospitals or clinics. It does not treat patients directly. Care stays with a patient's own oncology team, wherever they are treated.

Because SU2C mainly funds research, it can be far removed from any one patient's daily treatment decisions. Its reported role in FDA approvals describes the research field broadly. It is not a promise that any current treatment traces straight back to SU2C funding. SU2C's celebrity-driven visibility is a fundraising tool, not a medical service. A family looking for direct patient support should look to other groups or to their own care team.

SU2C's history shows how an organization's start shapes what it becomes. Because entertainment-industry founders built it, its public face is built on celebrities and big broadcasts. But its real work, funding teams of researchers, mostly happens out of sight, inside labs and shared projects most patients never see.

If you meet SU2C through a celebrity appearance or a TV special, it helps to know this: the broadcast you see and the research funding you don't see are two parts of the same organization.