Fight For E Donates $100,000 to CSU Cancer Center
The third and largest donation supports osteosarcoma research in Fort Collins aimed at a cure for children.
Updated on Nov. 7, 2026 in Cancer
Fight For E made its third and largest donation of $100,000 to Colorado State University's Flint Animal Cancer Center for osteosarcoma research. The gift supports a Phase I clinical trial with osteosarcoma patients at Children's Hospital Colorado and sites in Los Angeles and Atlanta.
Why it matters
Osteosarcoma is an aggressive bone cancer that mainly affects children, and standard treatment for children has not changed in over 40 years and is about 30% effective. The donation funds research intended to produce better treatment and ultimately a cure.
The donation is Fight For E's largest of three gifts to the Flint Animal Cancer Center, which funds research on a cancer that is about 20 times more likely in dogs than in humans. Results from the research have not yet been reported in the source.
The players
Fight For E
A nonprofit founded to raise money for osteosarcoma research in honor of Ethan Fisher, raising funds each year through a poker tournament, a honk-e tonk, and a golf tournament.
Colorado State University
A public research university in Fort Collins whose Flint Animal Cancer Center received the donation for osteosarcoma research.
Dan Regan
A microbiology, immunology, and pathology professor at Colorado State University who leads the osteosarcoma research in the Fort Collins lab.
Children's Hospital Colorado
A pediatric hospital in Colorado that is a site for the Phase I clinical trial with osteosarcoma patients.
The details
Fight For E was founded to fund osteosarcoma research in honor of Ethan Fisher, who was diagnosed in 2017 at age 14 and died in July 2020. Research led by microbiology, immunology, and pathology professor Dan Regan in the Fort Collins lab tests promising treatments in mice, then in dogs with naturally occurring osteosarcoma, then in people in clinical trials.
Timeline
2017: Ethan Fisher is diagnosed with osteosarcoma at age 14.
July 2020: Ethan Fisher dies from osteosarcoma.
October 2026: Fight For E makes its $100,000 donation to Colorado State University.
Health Landscape
Fight For E's gift funds a comparative model in which promising treatments are tested in dogs with naturally occurring osteosarcoma before human trials. Standard osteosarcoma treatment has not changed in over 40 years, which is why the research pathway matters.
For families of children diagnosed with osteosarcoma, the research aims to improve a standard treatment that is about 30% effective and has not changed in over 40 years. The donation supports clinical trials that could eventually offer new treatment options.
The takeaway
Donor-funded research that moves treatments from animal models into human trials can shorten the path toward better options for diseases with outdated standard care. Readers interested in osteosarcoma can follow how such comparative research progresses.
Further reading
For more on related research, see Cancer coverage in the Fort Collins area.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Loveland Reporter-Herald.
