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Dr. MacDonald and colleagues have developed a new test that detects cancer cells in the blood and other fluids of patients with brain tumors. They have discovered that children with a particular type of brain tumor often have cancer cells in their blood. They can also use their test to follow how treatment changes the number of cancer cells in the blood to find out if the treatment being given is working to kill all the remaining cancer cells in the brain. This is the first time such a test has been able to do this using a simple blood draw. Dr. MacDonald and colleagues will use their test for children with other types of brain tumors. Dr. MacDonald and team will study the cancer cells in the blood to see why and how these brain cancer cells are still alive after treatment. This will help to identify the "steps" in which the cancer cells take to avoid being killed by the treatments being given and ultimately will then lead to new treatments targeting these steps to cure childhood brain tumors.

This grant is named for Hannah’s Heroes, a Hero Fund established to honor Hannah Meeson. At age 6 she was diagnosed with anaplastic medulloblastoma. After a relapse and additional treatment, Hannah currently shows no evidence of disease. Throughout her treatments, Hannah never complained and remained positive and happy. This fund pays tribute to her fight by raising awareness and funding for all childhood cancers because kids like Hannah “are worth fighting for.”