Grants Search Results

This grant funds personnel support for clinical trials targeted at adolescents and young adults in a designated adolescent young adult unit.

While many children with leukemia experience good outcomes on modern therapies, there are a large number of children who still relapse and die of their disease. Using new methods, Dr. Willman identified a new form of leukemia, called Ph-like ALL, which has a variety of gene mutations which code for enzymes. Currently, drugs that inhibit these enzymes are available for clinical trials. Dr. Willman is testing these drugs in children with high risk leukemia. This research aims to extend Dr. Willman's current studies to include children with standard risk leukemia in order to also improve their chances of survival.

This grant provides resources to help build an AYA Survivorship Program, to ensure that more adolescents and young adults can be treated on clinical trials, and to provide survivorship planning.

This grant funds a Clinical Research Associate to further develop and enhance the survivor program and develop effective outreach to this population.

This grant provides resources to establish a soft tissue sarcoma subspecialty team to improve patient outcomes and ensure the best transition for adults from pediatric survival clinic to adult care.

This grant helps provide necessary resources for the Childhood Cancer Survivorship Program at this institution, enhancing research while providing childhood cancer survivors the support, treatment and education they need to prevent and address late effects.

This grant funds the sustainability of a comprehensive long-term follow-up program and expansion plans to create a transition program with the goal to monitor the medical and psychosocial issues that young cancer patients face as they enter into adulthood.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Gramatges was awarded new grants in 2016 and 2017 to fund additional years of this Scholar award. Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is treated with intensive chemotherapy that results in treatment-related toxicities in 80% of patients, some so severe that the patient does not survive therapy. Dr. Gramatges's research investigates genetic markers characterizing the subpopulation of children and young adults with AML who are at risk for severe treatment-related toxicities. Validation of these markers may lead to upfront screening of individuals with newly diagnosed AML, and in cases where these markers are discovered, modifications to the treatment regimen and closer monitoring to reduce treatment-related morbidity and mortality in this disease.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Sabnis was awarded a new grant in 2015 to fund an optional third year of this fellowship. Cure rates for children and adolescents with metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma, the most common soft tissue sarcoma in childhood, remain poor despite decades of research. While researchers know the mutation, PAX3-FOXO1, that causes an aggressive form of this cancer, getting rid of the mutation does not kill cancer cells. Since PAX3-FOXO1 drives cells to create many new proteins, Dr. Sabnis hypothesizes that these cells depend on buffers that keep proteins from misfolding or clumping into toxic aggregates. This project tests whether blocking HSP70, one such buffer, specifically and effectively kills sarcoma cells. Understanding this vulnerability will open the way for better treatments.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Choo, the Tap Cancer Out St. Baldrick’s Fellow, was awarded a new grant in 2015 to fund an optional third year of this fellowship. Ewing sarcoma is a bone and soft tissue cancer that occurs in adolescent and young adults (AYAs). When the cancer spreads (metastasis), survival falls below 30% despite aggressive chemotherapy and surgery. Fortunately, promising data has identified certain genes that are specifically turned on in metastatic Ewing cells. By developing targeted therapy against these gene products, Dr. Choo hopes to effectively treat Ewing sarcoma. In addition, targeting this unique pathway may reduce the use of conventional toxic chemotherapy agents that can cause cancer themselves. Ultimately, this research may help reduce both morbidity and save countless children with metastatic Ewing sarcoma.

This grant recognizes the partnership with Tap Cancer Out, a jiu-jitsu based 501(c)(3) nonprofit raising awareness and funds for cancer fighting organizations on behalf of the grappling community.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Norris was awarded new grants in 2016 and 2018 to fund additional years of this Scholar award. More than 70% of children diagnosed with cancer are cured of their disease, but today's therapies can have severe and life-long side effects, and too many children die from cancer. Cyclin dependent kinase-5 (Cdk5) inhibitors are a new type of therapy with the potential to treat childhood cancer. Dr. Norris, the Rebecca Alison Meyer Fund for Pediatric Cancer Research St. Baldrick’s Scholar, uses laboratory and computer models to determine how to optimize therapy with Cdk5 inhibitors, and how to combine Cdk5 inhibitors with current cancer treatments. Using this information, Dr. Norris studies Cdk5 inhibitors in adolescents with relapsed cancer, with the goal of developing new treatments for children with cancer.

A portion of this grant is named for The Rebecca Alison Meyer Fund for Pediatric Cancer Research created to honor the memory of the joyful and spunky little girl who courageously battled brain cancer. Rebecca’s legacy lives on in the funding of promising glioblastoma research. Awarded at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital and transferred to Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Barth was awarded new grants in 2016 and 2017 to fund additional years of this Scholar award. Children with B-cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma (B-NHL) whose disease is resistant to initial therapies have a dismal outcome. As the Do It For Dominic St. Baldrick's Scholar, Dr. Barth and his team have identified alterations in lymphoma cells that contribute to therapy resistance. This study investigates the ability to reverse or overcome resistance by targeting these altered pathways using targeted inhibitors. By inhibiting these pathways, he hopes to kill resistant lymphoma cells or re-sensitize resistant cells to traditional chemotherapy, potentially providing new future treatment options for patients with an otherwise poor prognosis.

This grant is named for the Do It for Dominic Fund which honors the memory of Dominic Cairo who battled non-Hodgkins lymphoma and was a hero to his school and community. His family and friends continue to raise funds and support research in the hopes that no child has to go through what Dominic endured.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Crompton was awarded new grants in 2016 and 2017 to fund additional years of this Scholar award. Ewing sarcoma is an aggressive bone tumor affecting adolescents and young adults. Current treatment regimens fail to improve outcomes for patients with high-risk disease, and new therapeutic approaches are needed. Dr. Crompton's team recently identified a protein that is highly active in Ewing sarcoma and is targeted by drugs in clinical development. Dr. Crompton, the Team Clarkie Fund St. Baldrick’s Scholar, aims to demonstrate that these inhibitors warrant testing in clinical trials for patients with Ewing sarcoma, define the clinical indications for their use, and identify the most effective treatment combinations. Lastly, the project will develop a new screening effort to identify additional drug targets in Ewing sarcoma.

A portion of this grant is named for the Team Clarkie Fund created to honor Clarkie Carroll and fund Ewing’s sarcoma research while stimulating greater awareness and inspiring others to believe pediatric cancer research can and will lead to a cure.

The project involves creating a web application that will generate computerized tailored resilience profiles for adolescents and young adults with cancer (AYA) and their parents. The tailored resilience profiles will summarize meaningful of information regarding the AYAs' and parents' strengths and areas that could be improved. The overall goal is to give them information to help them achieve a sense of resilience during cancer treatment. Resilience means a person feels a sense of confidence and well-being in the midst of a life-threatening illness. Fostering resilience during the cancer experience leads to improve quality of life.

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is the most common soft tissue sarcoma of childhood and some subtypes are highly aggressive and spread to different organs. Current treatment strategies include surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, and clinical trials combining these modalities still result in only 30% survival. Advances in cancer genome studies have identified several genetic changes that are crucial for aggressive tumor growth and spread of the disease. Some of these genetic changes result in display of specific proteins on the tumor cell surface. Development and preclinical evaluation of monoclonal antibodies against such tumor-specific molecules would open the door for a variety of targeted therapeutics and novel treatment options for these patients.      

Hypodiploid acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), in which the leukemic cells have lost multiple chromosomes, is associated with poor outcome. Dr. Mullighan and his team identified multiple new gene mutations that have not previously been recognized in this disease. Dr. Mullighan is investigating the impact of the identified mutations on leukemia formation, and investigating therapeutic alternatives for this high-risk leukemia. PI was initially Dr. Linda Holmfeldt.

Human synovial sarcoma is uniformly driven by a precise genetic lesion (change to our heritable material, or DNA), which converts a normal protein into one that functions abnormally and promotes cancer development. This research aims to identify molecules which prevent this conversion and halt synovial sarcoma growth.

Although radiation is a known carcinogen whose effects are most pronounced in children, it is ubiquitous in modern life. By studying survivors of pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma, Dr. Onel's team discovered that genetic variants regulating one gene are both very common and strongly associated with increased risk for radiation-induced cancers. Dr. Onel and his team are working to determine how radiation activates this gene, how the gene directs the response to radiation, and how variants alter this response. Dr. Onel hopes that these results will lead to new ways to identify children at risk for radiation-induced cancers, or new drugs to prevent this devastating late effect of radiation exposure.

Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor. There is an urgent need to develop novel therapies for children with medulloblastoma. Dr. Van Meir and his team are studying the importance of the loss of tumor suppressor BAI1 in medulloblastoma. Such new knowledge has the potential to reveal new ways to treat this disease.

Rhabdoid tumors are highly aggressive cancers that strike young children, for which a cure still remains elusive. In nearly all cases of rhabdoid tumors a specific tumor gene (SNF5) is mutated. But how this mutation drives rhabdoid tumor formation remains largely unknown. Dr. Wang's research investigates how this mutation eventually predisposes to cancer formation, with the ultimate goal of translating these findings to find potential therapies for this aggressive pediatric cancer. This research is funded by P.A.L.S. Bermuda with funds raised through the St. Baldrick's Foundation.