Transforming Hope Into Cure

My wife, Lisa Gillespie, died on September 7, 2026, thirteen months after being diagnosed with glioblastoma — the most aggressive brain cancer there is. Her tumor was among the worst kind: IDH-wildtype, MGMT-unmethylated, with a proliferation index around 90%. The standard of care for a tumor like hers hasn't meaningfully changed since 2005, and it doesn't work well.

So we went looking for more

Dr. Santosh Kesari built Lisa a protocol that didn't exist before her — genomic sequencing of her specific tumor, a personalized peptide vaccine made from her own antigens, and a combination of therapies chosen against her particular molecular drivers rather than against glioblastoma in general.

In April she developed a MRSA infection after a procedure. Everything had to stop while we fought it, and by the time it was cleared the window had closed. Lisa understood exactly what that meant. She knew she wasn't going to survive it.

What she asked for was that none of it be wasted.

She wanted the protocols Dr. Kesari developed for her — approaches never tried in this combination before — to reach the people coming after her. She wanted what was learned from her tumor to become something other families could use. And she wanted to remove the barrier we ran into ourselves: almost none of this is covered by insurance. Families who can't self-fund simply don't get the option.

That's what this fund is for. It supports CureScience Institute's continuing research, and it helps pay for treatments that patients otherwise couldn't reach.

Lisa spent her life as a dancer and a teacher, and what she loved most was giving people something they could carry forward. This is the last thing she asked us to do.

Whatever you can give goes toward the next person who hears the words we heard, and toward the day when the answer is something better than what we were offered.

Thank you for helping us keep her promise.

Dan Hodgdon