Pediatric meningiomas can occur sporadically or in the context of neurofibromatosis type-2, but also are the predominant cancers induced by radiation during cranial radiotherapy (CrRT).

Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is a deadly pediatric brain cancer. Despite radiation treatment, the current standard of care, almost all children diagnosed with the disease succumb to it with a median survival of 12 months. There have been few advancements in treatment, and current treatment has no curative intent. Therefore, there is a significant need to develop new therapeutic strategies to improve the terrible outcomes for these children and improve quality of life for patients and their families.

Despite great advances in the care of kids with cancer, it is still the leading cause of death by disease after infancy among children in the United States. In addition, 60% of cancer survivors suffer long-term side effects from their treatment. The main limit of traditional cancer treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy is that they not only kill cancer cells, they also affect healthy ones. A new mode of treatment called Cancer Immunotherapy unleashes the patient’s immune system to only target cancer cells while avoiding healthy ones.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is cancer of the blood and bone marrow and is the most common cause of cancer in children. Different kinds of ALL are caused by different genetic changes within the leukemia cells, and these changes affect how well children respond to chemotherapy. Although most children with ALL can be cured with regular chemotherapy, the Philadelphia chromosome-like (Ph-like) type of ALL is known to be very difficult to cure and often comes back (relapses).

Leukemia is the most common cancer in children, accounting for almost 1 out of 3 cancers. This is also true in children with Down syndrome, a chromosomal abnormality caused by a third copy of chromosome 21. In particular, children with Down syndrome have a 150-fold increased risk of developing acute myeloid leukemia during the first years of their childhood. In fact, the first mutation occurs in the gene GATA1 during the development of the fetus at pregnancy.