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Fighting a Rare Cancer

Student Josh Sommer takes his work on chordoma to the Today Show

Duke student Josh Sommer has brought new attention to a rare cancer.

Josh Sommer, a Pratt junior, appeared on national televised Today Show on Wednesday. This could be an important event for him, considering that since being diagnosed and treated for a rare spinal cancer during his freshman year, he has dedicated his time and effort to raising awareness and money for his Chordoma Foundation.

The foundation, which was founded last year by Josh and his mother Simone, has already achieved notable successes, such as hosting a conference that brought together scientists from across the globe to compare notes and to develop strategies for better understanding this uncommon disease. The foundation hopes to raise $3 million by the end of this year, with one of its first priorities to establish a centralized biobank to house chordoma tissue essential to conducting research.

Josh appears in the program with cancer researchers from the Duke University Medical Center, as well as with a local 12-year-old boy with chordoma whom Josh has befriended. This national exposure could go a long way toward raising awareness and funding to hopefully find a treatment for the disease.

Jenna Wolfe, the Today Show correspondent, wrote the Reporter's Notebook in addition to her broadcast. To read it, click here.

Josh has also been profiled recently by the Duke Chronicle, the Raleigh News & Observer and in an Associated Press story that ran in the New York Times.