The Keller Laboratory at cc-TDI: 08/01/2012

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Congratulations, Lara!

We are grateful to the Damon Runyon Cancer Foundation and the St Baldrick's Foundation for their combined support of our Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) oncology fellow, Lara Davis, in pursuit of her project for Personalized Osteosarcoma Therapy in man and dog. Lara's studies are in collaboration with a team at Oregon State University, led by Dr. Bernard Seguin. This work was made possible by an initial pilot grant from the Thrasher Foundation as well as longstanding, ongoing support from community of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Carter family who drive the Scott Carter Foundation. Scott is a young man for which this project was created... he lost his battle to osteosarcoma in 1993, but his vision of better treatments through research has inspired us find better ways to treat relapsed or newly diagnosed sarcomas.

Our thanks to CureSearch!

We are grateful to CureSearch for Children's Cancer for the $40,000 grant to pursue our proposal, COG-STS Preclinical Targeted Agent Trial Design Support. Through this project we will provide the Children's Oncology Group Soft Tissue Sarcoma committee with real-time testing of a targeted therapeutic for rhabdomyosarcoma and non-rhabdomyosarcoma soft tissue sarcomas.

Congratulations, Jinu!

Congratulations to Jinu whose paper addressing receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistance was accepted today to Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. Co-authors of the study include Jason Glover, Jeff Tyner, Marc Loriaux from the laboratory of Brian Druker, Keller lab alumni Aoife Kilcoyne, Laura Nelon and Corrine Chua, as well as Texas collaborators Ranadip Pal, Jennifer Carew, Yongjian Ouyang and Joel Michalek, Cleveland Clinic collaborator Brian Rubin and Ireland collaborator Frank Giles.

[ 08/21/12: "An adaptive Src–PDGFRA–Raf axis in rhabdomyosarcoma", now online here ! ]

Monday, August 20, 2012

Our thanks to the Patrick M. Callahan Memorial Fund

We are grateful to the community that supports the Patrick M. Callahan Memorial Fund. Your generous gift moves us closer to finding not only the causes of this disease, but the actual drugs that might be put into clinical trials to benefit children and young adults who like Patrick did, face the challenge of muscle cancer. Thank you for allowing us this opportunity to be part of Patrick’s legacy in helping make metastatic alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma a survivable disease.

ps. stay tuned for exciting results of last year's contribution, which is being submitted to a scientific journal shortly.

[right: Patrick at a Phillies game, by permission of his mother, Joann]

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Scott Carter Foundation BIG SHOW!

It was a pleasure to attend the Scott Carter Foundation Big Show! this weekend. The SCF raises funds to support the training of new scientists for childhood cancer research. It's inspiring to see a community rally around an idea created by a boy, Scott, who saw a world with cures for all children affected by cancer.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Legacy Gift paper accepted to PBC!

Congratulations to Jen and her co-authors, whose paper on legacy gifts (autopsy tissue for research) was accepted to Pediatric Blood & Cancer, the leading journal for pediatric hematology-oncology. For more details of this project, see www.ccurefast.org as well as our open science forum.

[ "Overcoming autopsy barriers in pediatric cancer research", now online here! ]

Monday, August 13, 2012

Pediatric Cancer Nanocourse 2012

We are grateful and inspired by the 12 participants that came to Portland for the one-week Pediatric Cancer Nanocourse. The goal was to create science‐informed liaisons between childhood cancer researchers and the community in order to empower the public to drive the cure of rare cancers. We firmly believe liaisons like these dedicated individuals, many of whom experienced unthinkable loss, are needed to speed the development of new and effective childhood cancer treatments. We welcome the opportunity to work together with these individuals and the community in this shared mission.

[ update 1/31/2014: see details of the 2012 Nanocourse peer-reviewed publication. ]

You Can Participate in our Novel Therapeutics Studies !

One would like to think that tangibly better treatments for rhabdomyosarcoma, medulloblastoma and other childhood cancers can be found in a matter of years, instead of tens of years. Finding new treatments starts with research, perhaps even a new research approach to identifying effective new treatments. The Children's Cancer Therapy Development Institute focuses on finding molecules in childhood cancers that can be directly turned off or on by drugs so that the tumor stops growing. Behind our novel approach is the use of genetically-engineered mice. Our Pediatric Preclinical Testing Initiative uses mice modified from before birth so that at a certain age, and in a certain tissue, the same mutations found in a child’s cancer are activated in the mouse. These special mouse models of childhood cancer can be used to test a treatment to see whether the tumor growth and spread (metastasis) can be reversed. The specific aspect of these mice having normal immune systems is a real plus, too, because white blood cells play an important role in how tumors evolve and respond to therapy.

Our program is designed around community participation. Through the Children's Cancer Therapy Development Institute, you can contribute directly to this grass-roots initiative. Donations through small gifts or grants will assist in studying compounds that may be effective in treating such childhood cancers as alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma, or medulloblastoma (the alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma model was featured by Dr. Keller's long time collaborator and former mentor, 2007 Nobel laureate Mario Capecchi, in his Nobel Prize lecture {see 16 minutes onward}.)

For additional information regarding supporting this program please contact Charles Keller at charles@cc-tdi.org. Results obtained through these studies will be shared with the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program, as well as the Children’s Oncology Group, which designs clinical trials for childhood cancer.