Unique 'Buy My Cancer' NFT Series Helps Fund Patients Treatment

Combining contemporary art, modern medicine, and NFT technology, the first edition of ‘Buy My Cancer’ is a unique collaboration between the Alivia Oncology Foundation, the Maria Sklodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology, Warsaw-based artist Paweł SWANSKI, and creative agency Ogilvy.

The first NFT series designer to save lives

‘Buy My Cancer’ is an innovative funding model designed to help cover the costly treatment of cancers. Working with artists and patients around the world, microscopic photographs of real living cancer cells are transformed into beautiful and powerful works of art and then turned into NFT collections. NFT (Non-Fungible Token) is a unique digital certificate stored on a blockchain. The funds raised will cover treatment costs for patients currently battling cancer.

A combination of medicine, art and technology

Living cancer cells are photographed using a confocal microscope, and these images are given to an artist to interpret as they see fit – from paintings to performances. 

In the first edition, each of these cancerous cells represents a patient selected at the Maria Skłodowska-Curie Institute of Oncology in Gliwice in Poland. The first patient is Jakub Burnos – a student at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow, who suffers from a resistant form of aggressive lymphoma.

The first works have been created with Polish artist SWANSKI. As part of the ‘Buy My Cancer’ project, SWANSKI juxtaposes real living cancer cells with the characteristic elements of his work. Each of the three artworks, as well as the entire performance of their creation, have been recorded and turned into NFT collections available on the largest international NFT platforms: VAST and OpenSea.

Treatment method

CAR-T is a cutting edge, extremely effective and dynamically developing branch of immunotherapy that can directly impact cancers resistant to other methods of treatment. Clinical trials indicate that CAR-T cells therapy can cure about 40% of patients for whom there are no other effective treatments.

#buymycancerchallenge

Once the first edition of NFTs has been finished, the next challenge begins. In the #buymycancerchallenge, artist SWANSKI and Professors Sebastian Giebel and Jacek Jassem will nominate other artists and professors to take part in the next edition of “Buy My Cancer”. The new professors will select new patients to have their cancer cells photographed, and the new artist will use those images as the basis for new artworks, and new NFT collections. And as before, the funds raised from the campaign will go towards life saving treatments.

You can find out more about the project here.