Childhood Cancer Research
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
3401 Civic Center Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19104
United States
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the leading cause of cancer-related death in young people, and commonly has a poor outcome in adults. The high-risk ALL is a subtype of ALL that fare a high rate of relapse and mortality. Intriguingly, high-risk ALLs show increased signaling response to growth factors that results in uncontrolled cell proliferation. This study focuses on a critical regulator of growth factor signaling pathway and also a novel tumor suppressor, to improve our understanding of the pathogenesis of childhood leukemias.
NB remains one of the deadliest solid tumors in children. Over half of high-risk NB patients experience relapse with no curative rescue treatment options. Topoisomerase I inhibitors of the camptothecin family are among the most potent anticancer agents effective against many pediatric solid tumors. However, they often show poor efficacy against high-risk NB due to difficulty in achieving and maintaining stable drug presence at sufficient levels in the tumor while avoiding dose-limiting adverse effects.
Background
Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has been a transformative treatment for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) whose disease has relapsed or not responded to other therapies. However, CAR T-cell therapy is also associated with toxicities, which may be severe. One common side effect is acute kidney injury, but the spectrum of kidney disease has not previously been well described. In addition, we do not know if CAR T- cell therapy has any long-term effects on the kidney.
Mentor: Dr. Kristopher Bosse
Clinical trials exist to push forward the development of new therapies and to help improve the survival of patients. Advances in therapies over the last few decades have significantly improved the event-free survival (EFS) rates for T-ALL/T-LLy patients. However, relapsed disease still has a poor prognosis. Recently, the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) trial AALL0434 tested the drug nelarabine as a treatment for pediatric T-ALL. This trial showed that adding nelarabine to the patients’ therapies greatly improved disease-free survival for T-ALL pediatric patients.
Mentor: Dr. Richard Aplenc
Mentor: Dr. Garrett Brodeur
Jessica will focus on understanding histology and pathology of tumors and cancer predisposition. In collaboration with the BWS Registry team, she will be mentored by Dr. Jennifer Kalish and Dr. Garrett Brodeur to focus on chart review of patients with Wilms tumors and the timing and staging of cancer. This work will enable her to simultaneously engage with patients and work on research projects, which help understand their cancer development and improve the quality of their care.
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