Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation and the Pediatric Preclinical Testing Consortium just made the genomic profiles of 270 tumors available to researchers everywhere. For free.
In her lab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Dr. Yael Mossé leads an international team of researchers studying MYCN, a treatment-elusive mutated gene that drives cancer. At City of Hope in Los Angeles, Dr. Linda Malkas is working on a liquid formulation of promising cancer drug she developed, so that drug can be trialed in children as well as adults. In Memphis, Dr. Rebecca Gardner is working to make CAR T immunotherapy more effective, more accessible, and more equitable for kids with cancer. In her Vienna, Austria lab, Dr.
Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) is kicking off another year of innovative pediatric oncology research with the announcement of 15 new pediatric oncology research grant awards. In 2023, ALSF funded 120 projects, bringing the total projects funded by the Foundation to over 1,500.
In 2023, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation saw all the hard work, dedication and research pay off in a big way for children with cancer. From high-impact publications to breakthroughs to funding new projects, ALSF continued its commitment to finding safer treatments and cures for all childhood with cancer.
The best part: It is all fueled by lemonade.
Here are the top childhood cancer research stories from 2023:
1. Over 100 awarded grants—114 to be exact--funded in 2023
While individually childhood cancers are extremely rare, when taken as whole, childhood cancers represent a sizeable mass. There are over 400,000 children diagnosed with cancer around the world each year -- and this number is most likely underreported due to the lack of a centralized patient registry and disparities in diagnosis and treatment in low- and middle-income countries.
“Every kid matters. I have no problem fighting for the underdog. Just because it's rare doesn't mean it's not important,” said Dr. Ryan Roberts, from Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Roberts is part of a dream team of childhood cancer researchers from all specialties and all over the world funded by an Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) Crazy 8 Initiative Grant. The Crazy 8 Initiative, with support from partner Northwestern Mutual, has provided $26 million in grant funding to six projects led by researchers at 21 institutions all over the world.
To kick off 2023, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) has funded six new childhood cancer projects for both early career and established researchers.
ALSF is committed to changing the future of childhood cancer research by funding scientists and projects that will bring better treatments and cures to children with cancer. Attracting and retaining the best and brightest early career scientists is critical, as the funding at this stage will encourage and steer promising researchers toward long-term careers in pediatric oncology investigation.
What if a specific type of diet could magnify the impact of a targeted childhood cancer treatment? That’s the question Dr. Palaniraja Thandapani had after his initial findings that T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) relied upon a specific amino acid, called valine, to grow. This research was the genesis of Dr. Thandapani’s Young Investigator Grant from Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) in 2019. Following two years of work alongside his mentor and fellow ALSF grantee, Dr. Iannis Aifantis, they published their results about the necessity of valine for T-cell ALL growth in Nature.
Science to advance treatments for children with cancer has made incredible strides, but the causes of genetic mutations that lead to the development of cancer are still poorly understood. Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF)-funded researcher Alex Kentsis, MD/PhD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and his lab are investigating those fundamental causes to find cures for all childhood cancers. Recently, he’s made a breakthrough discovery about solid tumor development that has led to a clinical trial.
Since 2017, the Childhood Cancer Data Lab has been a key player in the advancement of childhood cancer research. Their mission is to provide pediatric cancer experts with the knowledge, data, and tools to reach their scientific goals. Now, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF)’s Data Lab is celebrating five years of empowering scientists to find cures for kids with cancer.
“Solving childhood cancer is a really big goal and it takes a lot of innovative thinking, but it also requires a lot of collaboration – a lot of sharing of knowledge,” said Liz and Jay Scott, ALSF’s co-executive directors and Alex’s parents. “And the wonderful thing about the Childhood Cancer Data Lab is that's exactly what it's designed to do.”
The treatment for osteosarcoma, one of the most common types of pediatric sarcoma of the bone, has remained unchanged for 40 years.
And while conventional methods (chemotherapy, surgery and more chemotherapy) work for some children with osteosarcoma, the disease spreads from the primary site in the bone to the lungs. Once this happens, there is no standard of care and survival rates dip from 60% to 30%.
Families are left with limited options and experimental clinical trials.
Collin was a social butterfly who loved to have fun. He was diagnosed twice with ALL, and after 12 wonderful years cancer-free, he was diagnosed with mucoepidermoid carcinoma and began fighting all over again. Sadly he passed away, but was an inspiration.
