Survivors

‘One Step Closer’: Emily Survives Cancer and Shaves for a Cure

by Emily Brown
September 2, 2014

After trying everything to cure her cancer, Emily was given three months to live. Then something amazing happened — her cancer went away. Read Emily’s survival story and learn why she shaves her head to raise money for childhood cancer research. (You can be a shavee℠, too!)

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Emily with two of her nurses in 2008.

I was given three months to live. That was 17 years ago.

At the age of 11, I was diagnosed with late-stage osteosarcoma of the spine and ribs. As is typical with bone cancers, I had been having pain for a couple of months. But it wasn’t until I injured my knee rollerskating and went completely paralyzed from the waist down that doctors found a grapefruit-sized tumor that had grown into four ribs, around my spine, and into my lungs.

They found it with a simple x-ray.

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Head-Shaving

Boston Cannons Lacrosse Players Face Off Against Childhood Cancer

by St. Baldrick's Foundation
June 27, 2014

Members of the Boston Cannons lacrosse team will be shaving their heads for children’s cancer research on August 9 and competing to see who can raise the most money. Donate to their efforts or sign up to shave your head with them!

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Members of the Boston Cannons lacrosse team are holding a St. Baldrick’s Foundation head-shaving event on August 9.

One Major League Lacrosse (MLL) team is about to face their toughest opponent yet. It’s not their longtime rivals in the league. It’s not grueling practices in the midday summer heat. It’s childhood cancer.

From June 21 through August 9, the Boston Cannons are taking the fight to childhood cancer with a fundraiser for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation.

Team members Jack Reid, Matt Smalley, Jordan Burke, Brodie Merrill, Eric Hagarty, and head coach John Tucker will be shaving their heads in front of their fans at the August 9 home game. Until then, these six members are competing to see who can raise the most money, with the team as a whole looking to raise $5,000 for children’s cancer research.

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Research

St. Baldrick’s Researcher Developing New Targeted Therapies for Ewing Sarcoma

by Rebecca Bernot, St. Baldrick's Foundation
December 2, 2013

Your donation to St. Baldrick’s supports pediatric cancer research. Donate now.

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There are things we can do that will increase our risk for cancer later in life, like tanning and smoking cigarettes. But childhood cancer is a different story.

Pediatric cancers are caused by genetic mutations. “However, since these mutations are unique to pediatric cancer, unique drugs need to be developed to treat these cancers,” explains Patrick Grohar, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatric hematology-oncology at Vanderbilt University and a St. Baldrick’s research grant recipient.

Dr. Grohar is working to develop new drugs that target one particular mutation found in Ewing sarcoma tumors, ultimately yielding more effective and less toxic treatments for this form of childhood cancer.

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Families

Crossing Borders to Cure Childhood Cancer: Rolando’s Story

by Rebecca Bernot, St. Baldrick's Foundation
October 1, 2013

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Rolando was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma when he was 13. On doctors’ recommendations, Rolando and his family moved from Cuba to the United States to seek treatment.

Ask any parent of a sick child and they’ll probably tell you they would do anything to make their child feel better.

Ask a parent of a child with cancer and they’ll tell you the same thing. Often, parents of children with cancer face these difficult questions daily, and the answers are never simple: How can I do more for my child? How can I be sure they are getting the best treatments available to them? How do I balance their needs with the needs of the rest of my family?

Tamara Peñaranda is one parent who can tell you firsthand about the sacrifices her family has made for her son, Rolando — sacrifices that, in the end, were a small price to pay for her son’s health and happiness.

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Head-Shaving

Pro Football Rivals Go ‘Head-to-Head’ to Tackle Childhood Cancer

by St. Baldrick's Foundation
September 30, 2013

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Washington wide receiver, Pierre Garcon, and New York linebacker, Mark Herzlich, go head-to-head to see who can raise the most money for childhood cancer research.

One of pro football’s oldest rivalries takes a new twist this year as New York linebacker Mark Herzlich and Washington wide receiver Pierre Garcon use their teams’ bad blood for good.

The two players, and division foes, will engage in a month-long competition to see who can raise the most money for childhood cancer research. The effort comes with a kicker — the winner gets to shave the other guy’s head.

The Wahl Head-to-Head Challenge runs from September 25, 2013 through November 12, 2013. Fans and supporters can ensure their player is the one holding the clipper in the end by clicking the donate button for either Mark Herzlich or Pierre Garcon. The player with the most money raised will shave the other player’s head during a live event later this season.

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News

Targeted Gene Therapy Could Yield New Treatments for Ewing Sarcoma

by St. Baldrick's Foundation
September 18, 2013

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“Pediatric sarcomas continue to be a challenging disease to treat. However, it is difficult cases where change is most needed,” said Sun Choo, M.D., pediatric fellow at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Rady Children’s Hospital – San Diego.

Dr. Choo is also a St. Baldrick’s Fellow, having received a two-year, $123,149 grant for her pediatric oncology research focused on Ewing sarcoma, a bone and soft tissue cancer that occurs in adolescents and young adults.

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Advocacy

46 Mommas Then and Now: Curing Kids’ Cancer Together

by St. Baldrick's Foundation
June 20, 2013

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The first 46 Mommas St. Baldrick’s event in 2010.

by Tiffany Beamer

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Tiffany’s daughter, Miranda, in 2007, shortly before she was diagnosed with childhood cancer; Miranda during treatment.

I’m a mom just like any other mom. A mom whose world came to a stop one day in September 2007 when I was told that my 3-year-old daughter, Miranda, had Ewing sarcoma, a type of childhood cancer that I had never heard of.

As the months of treatment passed, just getting through each day was challenging: Miranda’s body didn’t process all the antibiotics she got to help fight infection, her kidneys took a serious beating, she stopped eating, didn’t tolerate a feeding tube in her nose. I watched as my daughter’s little body shrank smaller and smaller as she lost one-third of her weight. I feared that the chemo fighting the cancer was going to kill her instead.

It was hard for to me rejoice when the doctor told me that, after three rounds of chemo, the tumor had shrunk by 75%, because I felt my baby was dying before my eyes.

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Research

Immunogenomics to Create New Therapies for High-Risk Childhood Cancers

by St. Baldrick's Foundation
April 7, 2013

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).

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The Dream Team, funded by Stand Up 2 Cancer and the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, aims to establish genomics-based immunotherapy as the second revolution in childhood cancer. The following is adapted from the Dream Team’s own summary of its proposal.

Curative chemotherapy for cancer was first realized in children. Survival rates for many of the common cancers in children improved dramatically through the last part of the 20th century. However, those cure rates have plateaued since the 1990s, and for some childhood cancers, we have seen little to no improvements.

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Research

Announcing the Stand Up To Cancer – St. Baldrick’s Pediatric Cancer Dream Team [VIDEO]

by Kathleen Ruddy, CEO, St. Baldrick's Foundation
April 7, 2013

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).

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I wish you could have been with us in the room when the first pediatric cancer Dream Team was announced, to be funded by the partnership of the St. Baldrick’s Foundation and Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C).

From a long list of innovative “big ideas,” the scientific reviewers representing both funding organizations had chosen the top four to submit detailed proposals. The experts agreed that any of these would be great investments, but for a grant of $14.5 million over four years, only one could be chosen.

The suspense ended with an enthusiastic round of applause when the winning Dream Team was announced at a reception tonight at the annual meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR). The evening’s emcee was actor Kyle MacLachlan, and speakers included Nobel Laureate Dr. Philip Sharp, St. Baldrick’s CEO Kathleen Ruddy, and 10-year-old cancer survivor Emma W. and her parents.

And the award goes to:

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Head-Shaving

Dr. Brad Doubles Donations on His Head for Kids With Cancer

by Dr. Brad Clodfelter
March 19, 2013
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Dr. Brad compares haircuts with patient and fellow shavee, Gerry; Dr. Brad’s office sign

“If you shave your head, it will be the most EXPENSIVE haircut you get because you’ll be paying for a divorce! I dare you!”

That was my wife’s response after she found out I was going to go bald at the St. Christina Cardinals event organized by my patient, Rita Kennedy.

Well, not one to back down from a dare, I became a shavee for the first time in 2011.

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