For the last 25 years of their careers, Jack and JoAnn Buttler of Blacklick, Ohio, were a husband-wife broker team focusing on financial planning. “We would always begin discussions with people we were just meeting by saying, ‘We do work together as a team, but know this does not work in a lot of other cases,’” laughs Jack. “For us it always worked very well. It was an integral part of our lives.”
And even though, sadly, Jack lost his wife of 46 years to ovarian cancer in 2014, the two still function as a team through their shared philanthropy. Despite her difficult journey with the disease, JoAnn deeply respected the care she received from David O’Malley, MD, and the OSUCCC – James, and wanted to make a difference for other women with ovarian cancer.
In the weeks before her passing, during a tour of the new James, JoAnn told Dr. O’Malley of her intention to leave a gift from her estate for ovarian cancer research. Recalls Jack, “We were in the new chapel area on the first floor of The James, and JoAnn said, ‘I want to do something, but it’s probably not going to be very much in terms of what I’d like to be able to do.’ She said, ‘I’d like to give $100,000 in the direction of ovarian cancer.’” They could see the surprise in Dr. O’Malley’s face. “She was pleased to hear that her gift was considered meaningful.”
Indeed, says Dr. O’Malley, who describes his reaction to JoAnn’s announcement as “humbled.” The JoAnn L. and John (Jack) A. Buttler Gynecologic Cancer Research Fund (#135017) at the OSUCCC – James is a current use fund, meaning the funds can be spent down as needed – in this case, to benefit ovarian cancer research. Drs. O’Malley and John Hays, MD, PhD, sought just the right opportunity to honor JoAnn’s legacy. They found it through a translational study aimed at determining how a new agent called MLN0128 would impact patients with ovarian cancer.
“We have a project with a very exciting agent called MLN, which was in a National Cancer Institute (NCI) trial with the OSUCCC – James and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute,” says Dr. O’Malley. “We had a lot of ideas about biomarker identification and wanted to identify patients with the best opportunity to respond, but now the NCI rarely supports these types of translational questions.” Dr. O’Malley and Dr. Hays, the clinical trial lead, presented their project idea to Jack, who agreed that it aligned with JoAnn’s vision.
The Buttlers’ research fund has enabled all the cancer tissue samples obtained from ovarian and endometrial patients at the start and finish of the clinical trial to come back to Dr. Hays’ lab, where they are being analyzed to determine how the drug affected patients. “This would not have been possible without the Buttlers’ funds,” says Dr. Hays, who notes that the quality of data from the clinical trial means they will likely push forward with phase II clinical trials. The information they receive from the tissue samples will help guide how the second trial is designed.
“We’re talking about taking something where we treated 20 to 30 patients in a small trial to a much larger trial with 80 to 100 patients,” says Dr. Hays. “And if that is still successful, it pushes us that much closer to getting a new drug for these cancers.”
Dr. O’Malley believes that JoAnn – who participated in clinical trials during her own illness – would have approved. “JoAnn understood the importance of clinical trials in moving the treatment of cancer forward,” says Dr. O’Malley. “In discussions with us, part of what she wanted to do was to give back for the care she received here and try to improve outcomes for other women.”
For Jack, who was also treated at the OSUCCC – James for prostate cancer, it feels good knowing the fund his late wife created is going to help others by igniting discoveries. “We know it’s by inches, but it’s making a difference,” says Jack, who is now a member of the James Ambassadors Society, the premier advocacy group for the OSUCCC – James. “Everything they’re doing seems to be having success.”
He is so impressed by Drs. O’Malley and Hays and their progress, having stayed in close contact with them in the years after JoAnn’s treatment, that he has also arranged for a planned gift that will add another $100,000 to the fund. It’s something that continues to unite the close-knit couple, who worked side by side and raised two children in their more than four-and-a-half decades together. The couple’s generosity of spirit is something Dr. O’Malley admires. “Jack and JoAnn are two very special individuals, with a goal of giving back through philanthropy. Unfortunately, JoAnn succumbed to her disease, but to be able to continue in her legacy is so humbling.”