The Childhood Cancer Blog
The Childhood Cancer Blog
Leevi was diagnosed at age 2 with ependymoma and relapsed at age 5. After frontline treatment failed, Leevi enrolled in a clinical trial.
Oncology researcher Dr. Meenaskshi Hegde, from Texas Children’s Hospital, is working to change the outcome for kids facing ependymoma and to ensure that treatments are available at several institutions.
Using Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) Center of Excellence (COE) grant funding, Dr. Hegde is leading a Phase 1 study of CAR T cells for patients with refractory or relapsed ependymoma. The study, which opened in early 2022 at three children’s hospitals, will give patients access to treatment... Read More
The National Institutes of Health define rare diseases as conditions that affect fewer than 200,000 people. But for families facing one of these diseases, like Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome (BWS), these diagnoses don’t feel rare. BWS affects approximately 1 in 10,000 kids and is linked to increased risk of certain childhood cancers, including Wilms tumor and hepatoblastoma. With proper treatment and monitoring, these cancers are treatable, which makes it critical to properly identify kids with BWS... Read More
As a young trainee, many people gave Dr. Michelle Monje, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) grantee from Stanford University the (unsolicited) advice that one cannot have a big career in medicine or science and also have children.
She ignored the advice.
Dr. Monje (mother of four) was just awarded a research grant from ALSF. This grant is a $1 million commitment over two years to study CAR T cell immunotherapy for spinal cord diffuse midline gliomas in a Phase 1 clinical trial. Diffuse midline gliomas are inoperable, lethal, high-grade central nervous system tumors... Read More
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