 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
||
Dr. Naomi Balamuth was the first recipient of The Potter Cup Award. This award will help her start her career as a researcher looking to find new ways to cure and treat children with cancer. Please check back for research updates from Dr. Balamuth. Dr. Balamuth's research blog: January, 2008: Alex's Lemonade Stand has provided me with invaluable support as I begin my career in pediatric oncology. As The Potter Cup Young Investigator, ALSF has allowed me the freedom to pursue new therapies for pediatric neuroblastoma, and hopefully bring things quickly from the laboratory bench to the bedside. June 2007: We continue to work hard in the lab to find ways to slow down blood vessel growth in neuroblastoma. To date, there is one medicine that may be promising. We are currently working on combining this medicine with other known medicines to see if we can make the effect even stronger. It's been very exciting, and hopefully, we will be able to get these treatements to children soon! November 28, 2006: In order to learn more about neuroblastoma in children, we study neuroblastoma in mice. We watch the mice as the neuroblastoma tumors start to grow. When the tumors get to a certain size, we start to treat with medicine to see what will make the tumors smaller. Right now, we have an experimental drug we are ready to try. We are waiting for the tumors to grow big enough. I examine the mice every day and measure their tumors. I also take pictures of the tumors with an ultrasound machine. I hope to be able to start the medicine later this week. I'll let you know how it goes
November 22, 2006: I work in Dr. John Maris' laboratory at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. We study neuroblastoma, a rare form of childhood cancer, which is the same type of cancer that Alex had. The current treatment for neuroblastoma has a lot of side effects, and kids have to spend a lot of time in the hospital. We are trying to learn more about the disease,so that we can find medicines that work better than the ones we have now. All tumors, including
neuroblastoma, need blood vessels in order to grow. Tumors also use blood
vessels to spread cancer through different parts of the body. By learning
more about blood vessel growth and neuroblastoma, we hope "Alex's Lemonade Stand has provided me with invaluable support as I begin my career in pediatric oncology. As a young investigator, ALSF has allowed me the freedom to pursue new therapies for pediatric neuroblastoma, and hopefully bring things quickly from the laboratory bench to the bedside." -Dr. Naomi Balamuth, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia To ask Dr. Balamuth a question, please send an email to: pottercup@alexslemonade.com |
|
 |
 |