Sarah Rush, M.D., University of Denver Two-year funding, 2010-2011 Juvenile pilocytic astrocytomas (JPA) are common tumors of childhood. Despite the high incidence, the biological factors that influence outcomes for these children remain poorly understood. Based on our preliminary data, IMP3 represents a highly specific prognostic marker for JPA allowing for improved prediction of outcome. The aim …
Kathy Warren, M.D., NCI Special Project funded 2010-2011 Children with diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPG) continue to have a poor outcome despite advances in radiation oncology, new chemotherapeutic agents and extensive research into overcoming drug resistance. One of the major obstacles is the lack of biological studies that may aid us in better understanding the …
Africa Fernandez, Ph.D., Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center first year funding, 2010 – 2011 Medulloblastomas are brain tumors arising in the cerebellum, and they are the most common kind of solid tumor of childhood. Current treatments for these tumors leave patients with life-long damage, since the treatments affect the still-developing brain. Identifying therapies that attack the …
Philip Beachy, Ph.D. and Michelle Monje, M.D. 2010-2011 funding Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is a devastating childhood brain tumor that is poorly understood and universally fatal. Progress to date has been limited by a lack of faithful experimental model systems. We have overcome this impasse by generating new DIPG cell lines and xenograft model …