I will work to determine the effect that the administration of prophylactic antibiotics to Trisomy 21 patients receiving induction chemotherapy has on their mortality, since it is known that patients with Down Syndrome are at a higher risk for both Leukemia and more severe outcomes (such as infections) of Leukemia.
Project Goal
Principal Investigator Name:
Lauren Hricik
Project Title:
Comparative Effectiveness of Antibacterial Prophylaxis During Induction Chemotherapy in Children with Down Syndrome and Acute Leukemia
Dr. Jun Yang's laboratory at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has recently identified a panel of rare genetic variants in ETV6, some of which strongly influence familial predisposition to acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common type of childhood cancer. While Dr. Yang's findings point to ETV6 as a critical ALL risk gene, the exact effects of each genetic variant on leukemia predisposition are unclear and there is an urgent need to determine the functional consequences of these alleles in the context of leukemogenesis.
Treatment of metastatic Ewing sarcoma (ES) remains an unsolved clinical problem, with a 3-year event free survival at 27% for patients with metastases at diagnosis. Tumor hypoxia is one of the few known metastatic factors in ES, yet the exact pathways underlying its actions remain unknown.
Principal Investigator Name:
Kristen Suzich
Project Title:
Identification of Hypoxia-induced Pathways Driving Ewing sarcoma Metastases
Neuroblastoma (NB) is the leading cause of cancer-related death in children. Despite intensive treatment regimens approximately 50-60% of patients with high-risk neuroblastoma will eventually relapse, emphasizing the need for novel treatment approaches.
Emerging evidence suggests that many cancers experience episodes of very rapid mutation. One example is a newly discovered mutagenic event called chromothripsis, in which one of the 46 DNA molecules (chromosomes) in the cell is heavily damaged, causing some segments of the chromosome to become scrambled, while others are lost altogether. Chromothripsis has been described in many cancers, but is particularly common in some pediatric cancers including sarcomas and gliomas.
Principal Investigator Name:
Emily MacDuffie
Project Title:
Defining Genomic Consequences of Chromothripsis Using a CRISPR-based Chromosome Labeling System
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a genetically complex group of cancers. AML pediatric patients can be divided into those with chromosomal translocations and patients that are cytogenetically normal (CN-AML). Human-in-animal and mouse models of AML have been developed to validate fusion oncoproteins (e.g. AML-ETO and MLL-AF9) as direct effectors of leukemia initiation, disease pathogenesis, and therapeutic response.
Sylvia loves volunteering and being active and artistic. After an MRI revealed a brain tumor instead of a suspected food allergy, Sylvia's entire life changed. She had surgery two days later and then began treatment. Thankfully today, she is cancer-free!
