June marks the halfway point of the year, and already Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) has been able to fund more than 40 research studies. ALSF funds a comprehensive grants program designed to find improved treatments and cures for children with cancer and new for 2021, we are enthusiastic to have committed $18.5 million to four game... Read More
The Childhood Cancer Blog
Welcome to The Childhood Cancer Blog
from Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation!
Alix Seif, MD, MPH, an attending physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and ALSF Grantee
Alix Seif, MD, MPH, an attending physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, is two decades into her career as a leading childhood leukemia researcher, but her journey into unlocking the potential of immunotherapy was fate from the start. During her first year of oncology fellowship, her very first patient was a young baby with relapsed acute myeloid leukemia. He was waiting for new treatment ideas after frontline therapies had failed. Then, he developed an infection, one that could’ve been life-threatening. Instead... Read More
Austin was diagnosed with leukemia just before his third birthday. Austin had his first CAR T treatment in October 2013. Today, he is 14 years old and a typical teen boy.
Before CAR T immunotherapy was approved by the FDA, it was Stephan Grupp, MD/PhD from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who delivered the first CAR T treatment to a patient — Emily Whitehead.
In 2017, the FDA approved CAR T cell immunotherapy as a treatment for children with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who have relapsed or didn’t respond to standard regimens.
CAR T cell immunotherapy makes use of a patient’s own immune cells, which are genetically modified to seek out and kill cancer cells.
But before CAR T immunotherapy was approved by the FDA, it was Stephan Grupp, MD/PhD from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) who delivered the... Read More
