Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer

Mentor: Dr. Rohan Fernandes

Background

Acute leukemia is the most frequent childhood malignancy and is generally categorized into lymphoid or myeloid leukemias. However, 2-5% of pediatric acute leukemia present with simultaneous lymphoid and myeloid leukemia, diagnosed as mixed phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL). Unfortunately little is known about MPAL and standardized therapy isn't established, which hinders the patients' chance of achieving a disease-free remission.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common malignancy diagnosed in children. Despite the treatment advances in childhood ALL, numerous important biologic and therapeutic questions need to be answered to achieve the goal of curing every child with ALL. It is believed that leukemias are maintained by a small population of leukemic stem cells that represent a key target for novel curative therapies.