Yolles family creates the Monica Yolles Fund

The Yolles family has created the Monica Yolles Fund designed to develop single fraction radiation therapy for recurrent or metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma. Using this approach, only a single dose (or ‘fraction’) of radiation is given. It has virtually no side effects and benefitted Monica over multiple years. This technique aims to improve the ability of the immune system to fight MCC. It quickly lowers the tumor burden, makes the cancer more visible to the immune system, and avoids destroying the killer T cells that recognize/localize to the tumor because they are not exposed to subsequent doses of radiation. Single fraction radiation also shows great promise in working with new immune stimulating drugs that are becoming available.