CC Community News Digest (June 29-July 5)

Assorted news from the last week:

Children conceived via assisted reproductive technology (ART) were not at increased risk of developing cancer later on, according to results of a prospective study.

More than a third of adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors reported being hesitant about vaccination against COVID-19 in a survey conducted in Utah and surrounding Mountain West states.

The FDA approved a recombinant form of a key component of a chemotherapy regimen for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common childhood cancer.  The approval of recombinant asparaginase erwinia chrysanthemi-rywn (Rylaze) encompasses treatment regimens for adults and pediatric patients with ALL who are allergic to asparaginase products derived from Escherichia coli. A global shortage of the E. coli-derived products has existed since 2016.

Fennec Pharmaceuticals Inc. said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has accepted for filing the resubmission of its new-drug application for Pedmark.  The specialty pharmaceutical company said Pedmark is intended to be used for the prevention of ototoxicity induced by cisplatin chemotherapy in patients one month to 18 years of age with localized, non-metastatic, solid tumors.

Upcoming Webinars and Online Opportunities:

CureSearch continues the 2021 CureSearch Virtual Summit Series with the third session:  The Journey of a Post-Mortem Tissue Donation.  This session will focus on post-mortem tissue donation and the research potential for this tissue. Panelists will discuss approaching families about tissue donation: the reasons these conversations are so important, the benefits donation confers to the entire community, and some suggested approaches to having these sensitive but critical conversations. We will discuss ethical guidelines for post-mortem donation as well as the collection process and the applications for post-mortem tissue in research.

Video links available for the public sessions of the 2021 CAC2 Annual Summit.

ACCELERATE hosted its 2^nd episode of their webinar series Orphan Drug Regulations on June 29 (view slide deck and recording at that link).  It included topics such as

• How does the orphan medicines regulation work in EU, US and Japan?
• How did it impact the field of rare diseases? What are the issues now in Research & Development?
• The oncology paradox: Why did the current adult-based approach not work for childhood cancers? How can we improve the situation to better target the ‘young patients’ needs?

The INVEST Precision Medicine conference cast a spotlight on the role of children’s hospitals, biopharma companies, diagnostic companies and startups in biopharma innovation.

The Ohio Department of Health has opened registration for the first annual Childhood Cancer Summit to be held ONLINE Sept 16-17. This FREE event is family-focused and includes a range of topics that are important to patients and caregivers at all stages of this experience, regardless of where you live.

Both in-person and virtual CureFest registration is now open!  Make your plans for September 25-26.

• Ann Graham (MIB Agents)