Check it out…the latest example that your support and our efforts to fund childhood cancer research is making a difference!
Through a study partially funded by ALSF, researchers in California have developed a new model that will help scientists test and develop more effective therapies for medulloblastoma – a particularly aggressive form of a childhood brain tumor. Kids with medulloblastoma have a high survival rate, but the treatment itself can leave them with a significant risk of other disorders and mental impairments.
ALSF Innovation Award grantee Robert Wechsler-Reya, PhD of the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla, California, and an international team of researchers have worked to pinpoint specific proteins found in some forms of medulloblastoma that appear to respond to a drug designed to reduce the activity of these proteins.
Maybe you’ve heard of the term/buzzword personalized medicine? This work is an important step toward utilizing this concept in kids with cancer. Instead of treating all kids who have medulloblastoma with the same drug, a doctor might one day be able to test the child’s tumor, find out which genes or proteins are out of whack, and specifically treat the tumor with drugs that will be most effective. Just as important - it could help in developing drugs that effectively treat the cancer and have fewer side effects, so the kids can go on to lead a more normal life after treatment.
So, I did my best to give a basic overview of the research, but there’s so much more to the amazing work these researchers are doing. You can read additional details about this study that we were honored to help fund in an article recently published in the journal Cancer Cell.
Just one more qu
ick note – the article was dedicated to a little boy named Cameron Jackson who died earlier this year after a long battle with medulloblastoma. In this same spirit, I would like to recognize one of our own childhood cancer heroes Halle Middleton, who bravely fought medulloblastoma and is currently in remission! For a recent school project, Halle had to do a report on a famous Pennsylvanian and act it out. We were honored that she chose my daughter, Alex, and she nailed it! Please take a few minutes and watch Halle’s report – it is truly inspirational and speaks volumes to the importance of raising funds for research like Dr. Wechsler-Reya’s working to find cures so that kids like Halle don't miss out on school projects.
-Jay Scott, Alex's Dad
Through a study partially funded by ALSF, researchers in California have developed a new model that will help scientists test and develop more effective therapies for medulloblastoma – a particularly aggressive form of a childhood brain tumor. Kids with medulloblastoma have a high survival rate, but the treatment itself can leave them with a significant risk of other disorders and mental impairments.
ALSF Innovation Award grantee Robert Wechsler-Reya, PhD of the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla, California, and an international team of researchers have worked to pinpoint specific proteins found in some forms of medulloblastoma that appear to respond to a drug designed to reduce the activity of these proteins.
Maybe you’ve heard of the term/buzzword personalized medicine? This work is an important step toward utilizing this concept in kids with cancer. Instead of treating all kids who have medulloblastoma with the same drug, a doctor might one day be able to test the child’s tumor, find out which genes or proteins are out of whack, and specifically treat the tumor with drugs that will be most effective. Just as important - it could help in developing drugs that effectively treat the cancer and have fewer side effects, so the kids can go on to lead a more normal life after treatment.
So, I did my best to give a basic overview of the research, but there’s so much more to the amazing work these researchers are doing. You can read additional details about this study that we were honored to help fund in an article recently published in the journal Cancer Cell.
Just one more qu
ick note – the article was dedicated to a little boy named Cameron Jackson who died earlier this year after a long battle with medulloblastoma. In this same spirit, I would like to recognize one of our own childhood cancer heroes Halle Middleton, who bravely fought medulloblastoma and is currently in remission! For a recent school project, Halle had to do a report on a famous Pennsylvanian and act it out. We were honored that she chose my daughter, Alex, and she nailed it! Please take a few minutes and watch Halle’s report – it is truly inspirational and speaks volumes to the importance of raising funds for research like Dr. Wechsler-Reya’s working to find cures so that kids like Halle don't miss out on school projects.-Jay Scott, Alex's Dad
February 24, 2012
