MAC Fund

Moving Ahead for Cures (MAC)

Mac Sinise, the son of Gary and Moira Sinise and brother to Sophie and Ella, fought bravely against metastatic chordoma for more than five years before succumbing to the disease. Determined to bring to fruition his hope for cures, in 2024 the Sinise Family established the Moving Ahead for Cures (MAC) Fund in his memory. Donors to this fund are enabling us to bring new, more effective treatments to chordoma patients as quickly as possible.

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  1. The path to cures
  2. Moving Ahead for Cures (MAC)

MAC Fund

Goal: New, more effective treatments for chordoma

During his battle, Mac and many who cared for him catalyzed significant research advances which have helped identify new therapies that are now moving into clinical trials for the benefit of others facing chordoma.

To finish what they started, the MAC Fund’s ambitious current goal is to raise $4M to identify new chordoma treatments and enable more patients to benefit from them. Incredibly, the Sinise Family along with their friends Terri Yontz Miller, George Joseph, Jim Courter, and the Bob & Dolores Hope Foundation have kickstarted this goal with over $1M in generous contributions.

Join them as a MAC Fund supporter

MAC Fund

Dollars raised toward current $4M goal

Together, we can help families affected by chordoma get more precious days, months, and years with their loved ones. Your donation today will:

  • Fuel the laboratory work needed to identify new, effective chordoma treatments, particularly for individuals with advanced or metastatic tumors like Mac’s.

  • Launch clinical trials that will get promising new treatments to patients faster, and help secure FDA approval for chordoma drugs.

  • Help patients overcome barriers to joining clinical trials, accelerating enrollment so new treatments can reach more individuals sooner.

More details about the initiatives supported by the MAC Fund

  1. Scale up our research lab. With the successful launch of Chordoma Foundation Labs (CF Labs) in 2022, we are now poised to dramatically accelerate the pace of discovery. As funding permits, we'll expand our scientific team in order to test many more potential treatments simultaneously and quickly advance promising discoveries instead of having them wait in line. A key focus will be supporting the development of the first-ever drugs targeting TBXT – a protein that drives chordoma and several common cancers. With sufficient investment, we aim to advance these potentially game-changing drugs to clinical trials within the next five years. CF Labs is also working to understand why treatments work differently for different patients, helping doctors match each patient with their best treatment options. And beyond chordoma, the new research model that CF Labs represents is creating a blueprint for other rare disease organizations to follow, showing how a patient-driven research lab can dramatically speed the path to new treatments.

  2. Launch clinical trials and support drug approval. We strive to rapidly move promising therapies from the lab to clinical trials, especially for the benefit of patients with advanced or metastatic chordoma like Mac faced. In addition to directly funding promising trials at leading institutions, a cornerstone of our efforts in the near term will be the creation of a platform trial – an innovative trial design that can significantly reduce the time and cost of testing new drugs. Additionally, we plan to establish a comprehensive patient registry to strengthen our ability to obtain FDA approval for new treatments.

  3. Drive clinical trial enrollment. Removing obstacles to clinical trial participation is vital to propelling quick enrollment, so donors to the MAC Fund are enabling us to provide direct financial assistance to chordoma patients for their travel to clinical trial sites. With sufficient investment, we'll also add a dedicated clinical trial navigator to our team, who will help guide patients to the most appropriate trials for their specific situation. By ensuring that eligible individuals can participate in these trials regardless of barriers, we vastly accelerate the pace at which the drugs being tested can reach doctors' toolkits for the benefit of a far greater number of chordoma patients.

Because of you, those of us who continue to face chordoma have reason for hope.

We'll always carry Mac's memory with us as we continue to fight for cures, and we'll forever be grateful for the contributions and commitment of the Sinise Family, their friends, and each of you standing with us in this quest.

(You can use the Comment field when donating to send a message of support or thanks to Gary Sinise and his family.)