The Childhood Cancer Blog
The Childhood Cancer Blog
Then and Now: Cass was just 10 years old, when her brother Jimmy was diagnosed with leukemia.
Cass Butler was just 10 when her brother was diagnosed with childhood cancer. That experience changed the entire trajectory of her life.
“I didn’t understand because he looked and felt fine,” remembers Cass.
The hospital became a home away from home for Cass and her family. Every evening, Cass, her other brother and father would make the drive to the hospital for dinner as a family. Cass knew all the places to hide and the best treats to get at the hospital.
“Pediatric cancer changes a family in a way nothing else really can,” said Cass, who is now 26 years old... 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
As the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) Director of Science, I work to evaluate our funded research projects to track progress and find gaps in funding so that we can direct more research dollars to the largest areas of need, and to understand the challenges researchers face on a day-to-day basis. I am so excited about where the field of childhood cancer research is going, and I look forward to sharing breakthroughs more often.
Each quarter, I will highlight a few research projects that I think are both interesting and impactful. ALSF has funded more than 1,000 research... Read More
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