Baylor College of Medicine

Baylor College of Medicine

6621 Fannin

Houston, TX 77030

United States

How Emerging Technologies such as Genome Sequencing can be Practically Applied to the Care of Children with Cancer.

General Pediatric Cancer

Immunotherapy for Pediatric Atypical Teratoid/Rhabdoid Tumor

Atypical Teratoid/Rhabdoid Tumor (AT/RT)

A diagnosis of atypical rhabdoid/teratoid tumor (AT/RT) in the nervous system of an infant or young child is devastating. AT/RT is a very aggressive tumor that exhibits a five-year survival of less than 20%, and the types of intensive chemo- and radiotherapeutic treatment regimens most likely to extend life do so only at wholly unacceptable cost to cognitive function. This is true not just of AT/RT but for many other kinds of brain tumors as well: curative radiotherapy can lead to neurocognitive incapacitation and a life of permanent institutionalization.

Combining Oncolytic Vaccinia Virus with GD2.CAR-modified Vaccinia Virus-specific T-cells for the Treatment of Relapsed Neuroblastoma and Sarcoma

Neuroblastoma

Our aim is to develop potent immune-based therapies for high-risk neuroblastoma that produce complete tumor responses without toxicity and without compromising quality of life.

We have already demonstrated that T-cells genetically modified to recognize the GD2 protein expressed on neuroblastoma cells can safely eliminate local relapsed neuroblastoma, but complete responses of bulky or metastatic tumors were not obtained, likely because tumor-specific T-cells travel poorly to tumor sites and because neuroblastomas are immunosuppressive.

Engager T cells for the Adoptive Immunotherapy of Pediatric Malignancies

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, Neuroblastoma

Multispecific T Cells for Adoptive Immunotherapy of Pediatric High Grade Glioma (HGG)

Brain Tumors, Glioma

Background

Gliomas (HGG) constitute approximately 20% of all childhood brain tumors and are virtually incurable. The standard-of-care is maximum possible resection, radiation therapy and sometimes chemotherapy; a combination that is both toxic and largely ineffective. It is therefore desirable to develop novel tumor-targeted therapies that could improve these disappointing outcomes.

Dissecting and Targeting the Wnt Signaling Pathway in Metastatic Osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma

Background

Metastatic disease is responsible for about 90% of all cancer related deaths. Metastasis is when a patient's cancer has spread throughout the body and is not just located in one single tissue or organ. For children afflicted with metastatic osteosarcoma, the most common bone tumor in the pediatric population, it often means a very aggressive cancer that is associated with an extremely poor outcome.

Texas Children's Cancer Center Alex's Lemonade Stand Center of Excellence

General Pediatric Cancer

The Developmental Therapeutics Program at Texas Children's Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine is one of the country's leading centers for the development and conduct of early phase studies for childhood cancer The Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation Centers of Excellence (ALSF COE) award addresses two of the major challenges in pediatric cancer drug development: the inadequacy of infrastructure support for early phase clinical trials, and the very small cadre of individuals optimally trained to implement and conduct such studies.

Adoptive Cell Therapy Targeting Antigen Escape Variants in Childhood High Grade Glioma

Glioma

Brain tumors are the most common solid tumors in children. High Grade Gliomas (HGG) constitute nearly 20% of all childhood brain tumors. These tumors are particularly difficult to treat and usually do not respond to even the most aggressive therapy, such that the expected survival seldom exceeds 24 months with less than 25% patients surviving 5 years from the diagnosis. It is therefore desirable to develop novel therapies that could improve these disappointing outcomes. Immune system based therapies have the potential to fulfill this dire need.

V alpha-invariant NKT cells as a novel platform for cancer immunotherapy

Neuroblastoma

Mechanisms of LYL1-associated T-ALL development

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL)

T-cell ALL is among the most frequent of child-hood leukemias, and a significant sub-set of patients are not effectively treated by conventional therapies. A subset of T-ALL with a particularly poor prognosis is associated with over-expression of the LYL1 gene, however, the role of LYL1 has been little studied. In this project, we propose to study the role of LYL1 in T-ALL. We have found that mice that lack the mouse Lyl1 gene show defective development of T-cells, which are the precursors of T-ALL leukemia.

Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer