The Impact of the Dream Team on Childhood Cancers: A Video
The St. Baldrick’s — Stand Up To Cancer Pediatric Dream Team’s innovative and collaborative approach to science is making huge impacts in the world of childhood cancer research.
The Dream Team’s Impact – in a Father’s Own Words
What does your support of childhood cancer research really mean? See what Carlos Sandi has to say about what a difference the St. Baldrick’s Foundation and specifically the St. Baldrick’s – Stand Up to Cancer Pediatric Cancer Dream Team, have made to his family.
Patient Advocates – A Dream Team Video
Patient advocates play a vital role in the St. Baldrick’s — Stand Up To Cancer Pediatric Dream Team.
Patient advocates help to put a face on childhood cancer research. They humanize why the research is so critically important and translate that incredible work into language that’s more easily understood. Many are parents of kids who have fought cancer and one is a survivor herself. All are working to see the day when no family has to endure what they have.
Join us today and #DFYchildhoodCancers!
Read more on the St. Baldrick’s blog:
Proud To Be – A Dream Team Video
Researchers and patient advocates are proud to be part of the St. Baldrick’s – Stand Up To Cancer Pediatric Dream Team. Proud to be part of a collaboration to conquer childhood cancers.
The work the Dream Team is doing offers hope to children with cancer and their families and we’re closer than ever to finding cures. Not only has the Dream Team propelled ground-breaking cell therapies for blood cancers, it’s also making great progress towards the tougher challenge – helping kids with solid tumors. St. Baldrick’s supporters can be proud of this work that is already saving lives.
Join us today and #DFYchildhoodCancers!
Read more on the St. Baldrick’s blog:
Living Proof That Thanks to The DREAM TEAM… Dreams Do Come True
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.
Dream Team News: Progress in a Deadly Pediatric Brain Tumor
The Science of Self Defense
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.
Discoveries that Shift Paradigms with Dr. Poul Sorensen
St. Baldrick’s is all about shifting paradigms. When three men decided to shave heads at their industry’s March 17, 2000 St. Patrick’s Day party, they didn’t set out to change the landscape of childhood cancer research funding. But today the St. Baldrick’s Foundation is the largest non-government funder of childhood cancer research grants.
Twenty years later, the paradigm shifts keep coming, and Poul Sorensen, MD, PhD has been a part of several of them. Last month we joined some very special guests on a visit to his lab at the University of British Columbia, where he is a Professor of Pathology and holds the Johal Endowed Chair in Childhood Cancer Research.
Dr. Poul Sorensen (right) with his Co-Principal Investigator, Dr. Mads Daugaard (left).
Why the Pediatric Cancer Dream Team Incorporates Patient Advocates into the Research Process
“I’m an accidental tourist in the childhood cancer world,” says Patrick Sullivan, who chairs the Patient Advocacy committee for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation — Stand Up 2 Cancer Pediatric Cancer Dream Team. “It’s not a place I’d ever thought I’d be in, until I heard that my son had rhabdomyosarcoma in 2007.”
Patrick Sullivan and his son, Finn.
Patrick’s role is more than just tourist, though. When the Pediatric Cancer Dream Team was created, its goal was to push the envelope, to marry the emerging fields of genomics and immunotherapy to create targeted therapies for cancers. It was also important to the Dream Team to involve patient advocates, to inspire and work alongside the researchers, to maximize the Dream Team’s success. Along the way, each researcher was paired with a young investigator on the team, to help the advocates better understand the science and to help the young investigators better communicate their work to families and the lay public.
Pediatric Cancer Dream Team Works Toward More Breakthroughs
When the St. Baldrick’s Foundation — Stand Up 2 Cancer Pediatric Cancer Dream Team was created in 2013, the idea was to pursue breakthroughs, specifically in the area of immunotherapy enabled by the application of modern genomic technologies. Now, with St. Baldrick’s as the primary funder and each member institution also investing financially — the Dream Team looks to build on the tremendous momentum in immunotherapy for childhood cancers.
When Research Offers Hope, Parents Continue to Advance the Mission
I was recently invited to serve as a patient family advocate for the St. Baldrick’s / Stand Up to Cancer Pediatric Cancer Dream Team representing the National Cancer Institute. If you’re not familiar with the Dream Team and what they’re doing, it’s worth taking a few minutes to read up on the project.
In short, it’s a multi-institutional effort to accelerate cures for childhood cancer by sharing the skill, knowledge and unique resources of 8 top-notch research institutions.
Carlos Sandi with his son, Honored Kid and Ambassador Phineas.
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