Less than half of children with high-risk neuroblastoma are cured with current treatment. There is no way to predict response before giving this highly toxic treatment. Thus, there is a need for new ways to guide treatment choices. We aim to create a robust test using routine blood samples to follow disease and predict which patients will respond to standard treatment. Our team created a new method to find cancer DNA in blood samples. Using this method, we studied blood from children with neuroblastoma.
Neuroblastoma, a common pediatric cancer, is remarkable for its broad spectrum of clinical behavior. Although some children are highly curable, nearly half of all patients have clinically aggressive tumors.
We recently demonstrated that African Americans with neuroblastoma have a statistically worse outcome than Caucasian patients. Although multiple factors contribute to health disparities, our studies indicate that genetic factors play a critical role in the overall poor outcome we observed in African American children. Using a unique laboratory, cell-based model, Drs.
Mikaila was a sweet and spunky girl whose three years of laughter and smiles made for a lifetime well spent. She was diagnosed with a primitive neuroectodermal tumor (PNET) without primary. Sadly she passed away, but her family honors her in so many ways.
