What Is Sarcoma?
What are childhood sarcomas?
A sarcoma is a tumor that grows in the bone or soft tissue (muscles, nerves and fat) anywhere in the body. Sarcomas are rare, especially in young children, accounting for less than 15% of childhood cancers.
Pediatric sarcomas are classified into two major categories: bone sarcomas and soft tissue sarcomas.
Bone sarcomas can appear in any bone, but are most often seen in the leg, arm, pelvis or rib. The most common bone sarcomas are Ewing sarcoma and osteosarcoma.
Soft-tissue sarcomas can occur in any soft tissue, anywhere in the body. The most common soft-tissue sarcomas are embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma and alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma.
Within these two umbrella categories, there are many different types of sarcomas that can develop in children.
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.
Celebrating a Partnership for Progress in Osteosarcoma
For more than 40 years the main treatment for pediatric osteosarcoma has not changed. Patients with this type of aggressive bone cancer, most often diagnosed in teens, are in desperate need of new options. Fewer than 30% of patients survive when osteosarcoma has spread beyond the primary tumor at diagnosis.
To make a significant impact for kids fighting osteosarcoma, five funding partners have banded together with St. Baldrick’s to support a new grant – The Fight Osteosarcoma Together (FOT) Super Grant. Today we are excited to announce that the recipient of this three-year, $1.5 million grant is Dr. Patrick Grohar, at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The goal: a clinical trial to test a new treatment within three years.
Patrick J. Grohar, M.D., Ph.D.
Meet 2023 Ambassador Hanna: A Lesson in Rising Above the Storm
Life can be unfair. Curveballs, challenges, and heartaches do not discriminate. Even for the nicest people you know.
But there’s a popular quote that promises, “rise above the storm and you will find the sunshine.”
Meet Hanna. She has embodied this quote for 29 years, rising above the unfair hand she was dealt to feel the sunshine on her face.
Meet Hanna (no extra “h” at the end please).
Hanna
Meet the 2023 St. Baldrick’s Ambassadors!
St. Baldrick’s Ambassadors represent the wide diversity of kids diagnosed with childhood cancers. Their stories highlight the importance of supporting the best childhood cancer research so all kids diagnosed can live long, healthy, productive and happy lives.
What Is Osteosarcoma?
What is osteosarcoma?
Osteosarcoma is the most common type of bone cancer in children. It often originates in the long bones of the body that include the thigh bone, the shinbone, or the bone that runs from the shoulder to the elbow, called the humerus.
While osteosarcoma frequently starts in a particular bone, it can potentially move to other sites in the body, such as the lungs and other bones. This movement, known as metastasis, often makes the disease more difficult to treat.
A type of childhood cancer, osteosarcoma is commonly found in children children, teens, and young adults between the ages of 10 and 30. Patients who are 10-20 years of age account for 60% of osteosarcoma cases.
You can help to find the best treatments for kids with cancer. Donate now to help them grow up and live long, healthy lives >
The Top 2021 Messages Worth Remembering
As we close a difficult year, we reflect on lessons shared by childhood cancer patients and survivors who have faced adversity with grace, courage, and resilience. From their words, come some messages worth remembering now.
Sarah Swaim, age 31, two-time leukemia survivor & advocate
St. Baldrick’s Honored Kid, Sarah Swaim, and two-time leukemia survivor shares how having support during her cancer diagnosis helped her to keep going.
Research Outcomes: Advancing Research to Improve Treatment
Your generosity makes a difference for kids with cancer. This edition of the St. Baldrick’s Foundation Research Outcomes recognizes research that is making treatments less toxic, evaluating new drugs, and working to prevent late effects. Thank you for making research possible.
Battle Osteosarcoma Funds $1.35 Million in Research: Honoring Charlotte, Dylan and Tyler
Two years ago, a group of three dedicated moms rallied some dear friends to achieve what seemed like an ambitious goal to support osteosarcoma research. As you’ll see below, they knocked that one out of the park!
Battle Osteosarcoma volunteers set out to raise $150,000, then raised more than $1.3 million!
Surviving Cancer – Through the Eyes of a 16-year-old
Want to know what it’s like to be a teenage survivor of childhood cancer? We asked 16-year-old Michael G. to share his experience, during National Cancer Survivor Month.
Creating a Future for Osteosarcoma Research
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation has always been committed to innovation. As the largest private funder of childhood cancer research grants in the world, it will be no surprise that we fund innovative science, but our commitment extends beyond that.
As part of our strategic plan, we challenged ourselves to find new innovative ways that we could partner with donors in order to help them realize their goals and get more dollars working to find better treatments and cures. We developed our own “venture philanthropy” program, one that allows a donor, or a group working together, to target in what they want to fund with more specificity and involvement than we have ever been able to do before.
The first group to join us in this new effort was the Osteosarcoma Collaborative. Led by Michael Egge, father to Olivia (who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in February 2017), and current St. Baldrick’s Foundation board chair, Katherine Lugar, the Osteosarcoma Collaborative had a clear vision about what they wanted to accomplish through their fundraising and partnership with St. Baldrick’s. They wanted to fund research that needed support to push it over the finishing line – something that was very close to being ready to be put in a clinical trial and was specific to osteosarcoma research.
Michael Egge, founding member of the Osteosarcoma Collaborative, sought to raise awareness and improve treatments and outcomes for children with osteosarcoma when daughter, Olivia, was diagnosed in February 2017.
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