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Based on progress to date, Dr. Hoang-Minh was awarded a new grant in 2022 to fund an additional year of this Scholar grant. Brain tumors are the most common cause of cancer-related deaths in children. The current treatments are often associated with lifelong mental and motor deficits, and the tumors often recur. Therapies that specifically and efficiently target the tumors and minimize toxicity to the body are critical to improve clinical outcomes for children affected by these deadly diseases. As the Pray for Dominic St. Baldrick's Scholar, Dr. Hoang-Minh's research is exploring a powerful method that uses the children's own immune system to destroy their brain tumors, known as immune cell therapy. This therapy has emerged as a very effective and safe treatment for blood cancers and several types of solid tumors. It uses powerful immune cells, called T cells, to specifically kill the brain cancer cells and has already shown promising results in preclinical and clinical studies conducted at our institution. This project investigates novel approaches to make this immune therapy even more effective and safer. Dr. Hoang-Minh will also follow the fate of therapeutic T cells using a new, non-invasive imaging technology called magnetic particle imaging. The results of these studies are important as they could improve clinical protocols using immune cell therapies for childhood brain tumors and extend or save the lives of children afflicted with those very aggressive cancers.

This grant is named for the Pray for Dominic Hero Fund. The fund was established in honor of Dominic Liples who lived with joy. He is remembered for compassion and determination while he faced his own difficult battle with a rare and aggressive brain cancer. The Pray for Dominic fund carries on Dominic's legacy of joy and hope by funding research for high-grade gliomas.