St. Baldrick’s Researcher Tests New Treatment for Graft-Versus-Host Disease
Dr. Choi, a St. Baldrick’s Scholar, completed a phase II clinical trial testing a new drug to help kids with leukemia and other childhood cancers, and the results are encouraging. Help fund research like Dr. Choi’s. Get involved.
Kids with leukemia, like 2011 Ambassador Julia, sometimes have to undergo a stem cell transplant as part of their childhood cancer treatment. Graft-versus-host disease is a common complication of transplants.
For some kids with cancer, a stem cell transplant is their only hope for a cure. But stem cell transplants are very risky procedures. About half of all transplant patients will experience acute graft-versus-host disease, or GVHD, an often fatal complication where the transplanted immune cells attack the patient’s body.
What It Feels Like to Lose a Son to Childhood Cancer
Heather’s son Matthew was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia before his first birthday. The brave little boy endured multiple rounds of chemotherapy, radiation, and two bone marrow transplants. Matthew passed away at 3 years old.
Matthew loved tractors, his family, and playing hockey. He was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia as a baby and passed away at three years old.
Kate Returns to Gymnastics After Losing Her Leg to Childhood Cancer
When Kate lost her left leg to childhood cancer, she wondered if her days as a gymnast were over. But even cancer couldn’t keep Kate from the sport she loves. Read the latest update on Kate here.
Kate regains her strength at a CrossFit gym in 2013, after her second bone marrow transplant for AML, a type of childhood cancer.
For that exercise, she grabs onto a pair of rings suspended from the ceiling at her local Illinois CrossFit gym and lifts herself into a pull-up position. Then she pushes herself up until her arms are straight. She’s also got a soft spot for handstand push-ups and for pull-ups, with a personal record of 30.
Usually she’ll wear her prosthetic leg when she’s working out. For certain exercises, she’ll take it off if it gets in the way.
Three years ago, the 15-year-old gymnast and CrossFitter was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.
Grapplers Putting Childhood Cancer Into Submission
You don’t have to shave your head to raise money for childhood cancer research. You can Do What You Want instead!
Competitors from the 2014 Spring Tap Cancer Out BJJ Open in Stratford, CT. The tournament helped raise $54,000 for St. Baldrick’s.
That could easily be the description of a child fighting cancer with the best available treatment, but it’s also the concept behind Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) — a martial art that focuses on grappling and ground fighting until the opponent “submits” to defeat by “tapping out.”
And now the two have become one. The BJJ community is coming together to put childhood cancer into submission — they want to Tap Cancer Out.
The Dream Team’s First Year
Formerly known as the St. Baldrick’s – Stand Up to Cancer Pediatric Cancer Dream Team, this team is now the St. Baldrick’s EPICC Team (Empowering Pediatric Immunotherapies for Childhood Cancer).
The review took place at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and reporting for the Dream Team were co-leaders Dr. John M. Maris, director of the Center for Childhood Cancer Research at CHOP, and Dr. Crystal Mackall, chief of the Pediatric Oncology Branch of the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
The review panel included representatives from Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C), our partner in making this $14.5 million grant; the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR); and of course St. Baldrick’s.
I am excited to report that this Dream Team seems to be making more rapid progress than most. This is partly due to the fact that researchers in childhood cancer are more accustomed to working with colleagues from multiple institutions than are researchers in the adult oncology world.
Three Weeks Till Bald: Superman Sam’s Mom Speaks Out on the 36 Rabbis’ Shave
For Sam, losing his hair was a big deal at first. I think it was more the idea of the change rather than the actual hair loss. It changed how he looked, and it changed how people looked at him. Throughout his treatment, he was mostly bald, and then as it grew back after treatment, we noticed and celebrated.
FDA Acts on Latest Childhood Cancer Drug Shortage
Join Speak Up for Kids’ Cancer to receive childhood cancer advocacy news and updates.
Pediatric oncologists have depended on daunorubicin as a go-to treatment for kids with these leukemias for nearly 40 years. The fact that it has been difficult for many hospitals to obtain caused alarm bells to go off within the pediatric cancer community and sparked an inquiry from Congress to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Now, roughly two months after the FDA received a letter about the shortage of daunorubicin from Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), co-chairs of the Congressional Childhood Cancer Caucus, the agency has replied.
36 Rabbis Fight Childhood Cancer in Honor of Superman Sam
Our hearts broke at the St. Baldrick’s Foundation when we learned that Sam Sommer died last weekend.
Many of us followed his story on his family’s blog. We knew Sam was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a cancer of the blood, in June 2012. We knew he fought it hard and underwent a bone marrow transplant in August 2013. We knew his parents learned the transplant had failed on November 12, just two weeks after his mom and her friend conceived of the 36 Rabbis Shave for the Brave.
“Five hundred and twenty days ago we were told, ‘Your son has cancer.’ I never thought I could feel more pain than that day,” Sam’s mom, Rabbi Phyllis Sommer, wrote after she received the news that Sam’s cancer was terminal. “I was wrong.”
Sarah’s Story: Thank You for Giving to Childhood Cancer Research
Sarah gives hope and thanks after fighting cancer for the second time. You can give hope to kids with cancer, too. Fund Research
Then a checkup in June 2010 revealed that the leukemia had returned. Sarah’s only hope for a cure was a stem cell transplant.
“There’s no easy way to say what it’s like being a young adult with cancer … it’s harder than you can imagine,” Sarah says. “The physical and emotional tolls were just awful and for the longest time, I couldn’t remember feeling well. I had a lot of pain, nausea, and was so weak I couldn’t do even the simplest of things.”
Late Effects of Childhood Cancer Treatment: Amy’s Story
Amy, left, with her niece, Lilly. Amy was diagnosed with biphenotypic leukemia at age 10. Now 32, Amy is battling breast cancer, her third cancer diagnosis in 22 years.
I remember exactly where I was sitting and where the doctor was standing when he told my mom and me that I had leukemia. I remember it like it was yesterday.
I was diagnosed when I was 10 years old, in fifth grade. When the doctor told us the news, we were sitting on this little blue padded bench. I remember we were the only people in the clinic; we had waited all day for the results of my bone marrow test.
I had both ALL and AML — biphenotypic leukemia.
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