Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer

Background

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the second-most common type of leukemia in children. AML progresses rapidly and nearly 50 percent of children who are treated for AML experience a recurrence of their disease. After this recurrence, the survival rates are dismal, measured in weeks to months rather than years. Treatment failure is the primary reason for recurrence. Discovering and testing new treatment regimens is urgently needed to improve survival for childhood AML.

Background: There is an urgent need for improved and safer therapies for the treatment of children, adolescents and young adults (AYA) diagnosed with high-risk, pediatric cancers. Testing of new therapies for pediatric cancers requires an experienced network of clinical scientists, research nurses, investigational pharmacists, regulatory experts and data coordinators in order to manage early-phase clinical trials.