Project Updated (August 2019)

ALSF funded researcher Dr. Jeffrey Rubens discusses his groundbreaking research in atypical teratoid rhaboid tumors (AT/RT or ATRT) and shares tips for a successful Million Mile team. Watch below.

Background: I am studying a type of pediatric cancer called neuroblastoma, which is a cancer of nerves that develop outside of the brain. Commonly, it presents as a tumor mass in the abdomen. Although the five-year survival rate for children in the low- and intermediate-risk groups ranges over 95%, children with high-risk disease have only a 40% likelihood of survival. Furthermore, high-dose chemotherapy increases the risk of infertility, severe hearing loss, cardiac toxicity, and/or secondary cancers.

Background: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a form of cancer of the white blood cells, caused by the overproduction and accumulation of cancerous cells known as lymphoblasts. These lymphoblasts can arise from two different cell types known as T or B cells (designated as T-ALL or B-ALL). Both comprise the most common cancer among children and is the most frequent cause of death from cancer before 20 years of age. T-ALL is a particularly aggressive cancer, with fewer options for novel treatment strategies.

Background: T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is a devastating pediatric blood cancer. Despite progress in treating T-ALL, a quarter of childhood patients relapse within five years and receive a bleak prognosis. The general toxicity associated with recent therapeutic efforts to treat T-ALL stresses the urgent need for novel innovative therapies. While much is known about the genetics of leukemic cells, little is understood about how they behave within their native milieu, the bone marrow.

Background: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most frequent tumor diagnosed in children. Although many efficient therapies are available to treat ALL, there are specific subtypes of the disease that either do not respond to the drugs or tend to relapse after an initial response. Among these difficult subtypes is the Early T-cell Progenitor Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ETP-ALL), an ALL caused by an alteration of the T-lymphocyte progenitor cells. The mechanism that makes ETP-ALL, among all acute leukemias, so difficult to treat is still unknown.