What do you do when you’ve been told your child has maybe 3 to 6 months to live? As the saying goes, “You get busy living or you get busy dying.” That’s the situation Kim and Jeff Schuetz were put in when their son Austin relapsed not once, but twice after treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), the most common type of childhood cancer.
The St. Baldrick’s – Stand Up To Cancer Pediatric Dream Team is doing science differently to cure the incurable.
This is it! You — St. Baldrick’s donors and participants — have poured your passion into funding childhood cancer research, even in difficult times like these. And because of you, today we all celebrate the biggest batch of new grants of the year.
This new investment of $12.9 million brings the total granted by St. Baldrick’s for research since 2005 to more than $300 million.
The 53 grants include new funding for 18 Research Grants, 5 Supportive Care Research Grants, 9 St. Baldrick’s Scholars, and 1 International Scholar from India. Also receiving new funding for projects already underway are 7 St. Baldrick’s Scholars, 2 International Scholar from Kenya, 8 team science projects (Consortium grants), 1 St. Baldrick’s Innovation Award and 1 Strategic Initiative.
With a long history of support from the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, Dr. Eric Raabe of Johns Hopkins University is a “Rockstar Researcher” in pediatric brain tumors.
As an undergraduate student, Dr. Raabe volunteered at a children’s hospital where a pivotal moment influenced his decision to become a pediatric oncologist. He vividly remembers a young boy who had relapsed and was being hospitalized after having one of his lymph nodes biopsied. The boy sat alone in his room with the shades down. In the dark room the boy became more and more withdrawn as he sat and waited for the results. He thought he was going to die.
No sooner had the results come back negative for recurrence of his cancer, than the blinds went up and he wanted a pizza with everything on it. The experience left a lasting impression and prompted Dr. Raabe’s decision to become a pediatric physician scientist. In that moment he realized the impact he could make in a scared and sick child’s life. He decided then and there that he wanted to be part of providing a path to hope and a path to a cure. He wanted to help guide these children from the darkness to a place of hope and light.
One goal of science and research is to make the impossible, possible. So, what if we could train the body to fight off cancer itself? To ferociously attack what is attacking it. It would be a game changer and that’s exactly the kind of revolutionary research St. Baldrick’s supporters are making possible through the St. Baldrick’s – Stand Up to Cancer Pediatric Dream Team.
One of the Dream Team’s research studies was so important, it was recently featured on the cover of the prestigious scientific journal, Nature Medicine. The article outlines new advances to train immune cells in pediatric patients to target deadly brain tumors known as atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumors (ATRT tumors). These tumors develop in babies and toddlers, who currently only survive an average of 17 months.
The entire childhood cancer community knew that when it came to honoring the legacy of Robert J. Arceci, M.D., Ph.D., only something extraordinary would do.
Known for thinking outside the box and his passion for finding cures, Bob was something of a Renaissance man – treating patients, conducting lab research, editing research publications, creating a PBS documentary on childhood, serving as board member and chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee for St. Baldrick’s and much more.
Robert J. Arceci Innovation Award recipient, Dr. Paul A. Northcott of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Dr. Jeffrey Toretsky is a St. Baldrick’s researcher at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, D.C. He explains what sarcoma is, how it’s diagnosed and treated, and how research is helping kids and adults with this type of cancer.
What is sarcoma?
A sarcoma is a bumpy tumor that occurs in the connective tissues (nerves, muscles and bones) anywhere in the body.
Sarcomas are rare, especially in young children. In kids between 10 and 20, sarcomas make up about 20-25% of childhood cancer diagnoses.
Sarcomas can start off being tiny lumps that you can’t feel. They can spread through the body, or metastasize, before they grow big enough to be seen.
When you’re online, are you…
A) Shopping or selling
B) Searching for information
C) Helping fund childhood cancer research
D) All the above.
If you’re answer isn’t D, it can be — and it’s super easy too!
Did you know that there are things that you are already doing online that can be turned into donations towards lifesaving childhood cancer research? Here are three ways to take your online activity to the next level by turning your actions into real donations — it couldn’t be any easier than this!
They say you can always tell what’s important to someone by how they spend their time. The best dads spend it scaring away the monsters in our closets, continuing to read each time we say, “One more time,” and baking in the sun just to see us score our first home run. Their pride and joy at even our most minor accomplishments makes us feel like we can take on the world.
From left to right: David and son Finley, Jeff and son Micah, Bobby and daughter Rebekah.
To celebrate Father’s Day, we’re spotlighting three very special Fathers in the St. Baldrick’s community. All of them have had their lives shaken by cancer. Each of their stories covers a different chapter in the story and journey of survivorship.
St. Baldrick’s is dedicated to scouring the nation in a relentless pursuit to discover and unearth the most promising research. We fund the most innovative researchers so they may provide the most effective and ground-breaking treatments to every single childhood cancer. It’s this tenacity that ensures donors that they’re helping to propel advancements that will find cures for childhood cancers and develop less toxic treatments, giving survivors long and healthy lives. We find and fund the very best of the best. So put your money in the hands of the researchers who offer us all the very best chance to make a huge impact. Please donate today.
St. Baldrick’s Foundation
1333 South Mayflower Avenue, Suite 400
Monrovia, CA 91016 USA
(888) 899‑2253 · sbinfo@stbaldricks.org
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation is a non-profit 501 (c)3 organization, IRS identification number 20-1173824.
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