2:1 matching dollars for alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma

A pharmaceutical company in the Northeast has offered 2:1 matching dollars to fund research on a kinase inhibitor they make which our lab believes will be of benefit to patients with alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma.  The pharmaceutical company is willing to contribute up to $84,000 to match donations from the community of up to $42,000. 

   

This particular drug (kinase inhibitor) has a good rationale for being important exclusively in the alveolar subtype of rhabdomyosarcoma, and it is rare that we find a partner in industry willing to advance a drug just for alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma to the clinic.  The basic science studies we would do (preclinical studies) are the prelude to clinical trial studies that the pharmaceutical company would pay for in full (usually a >$2M investment on their part).

  

For more information, please email Charles at keller@ohsu.edu .  

  

COG Fall 2012 Meeting

This Fall's Children's Oncology Group meeting was energized as the new leadership initiatives to incorporate more and more science into clinical trial design are evolving.  Presentations from our lab and program included:

- Targets of opportunity for rhabdomyosarcoma (soft tissue sarcoma session)

- Ad Hoc Preclinical Consortia to Support Trial Design for DIPG (brain tumor session)

- The Rally Foundation Legacy Gift Pilot Program (pathology session)

as well as research on two STS committee agents of interest.  
  
Expect an announcement soon on the initiative from the Rally Foundation, one of the leaders in innovative, grassroots childhood cancer research funding. 
  

Rally Foundation takes bold step in Pediatric Cancer Research

Stay tuned for a more formal announcement of a $166,000 grant from the Rally Foundation to fund Legacy Gifts (research autopsy opportunities to find new ways to treat the otherwise untreatable 1 in 5 childhood cancers).  Jinu is grateful to be the recipient of this award which brings Legacy Gifts to a national level.  

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 ! ]

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]