CC Community News Digest (week of September 28-October 4)

Assorted news from the last week:

Twenty percent of children treated with drugs called anthracyclines go on to suffer heart failure later in life.  Dr. Greg Aune explores why.

Research to develop a new treatment and bring a new drug to market is extremely expensive, and conventional methods for obtaining funding aren’t adequate. New funding models can help disease-focused nonprofit research foundations play a central role in raising capital and mobilizing an ecosystem focused on controlling and curing a disease.

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed S.Res.742 – A Senate Resolution designating September as National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.  Senators Manchin (D-WV) introduced the Resolution and Senators Hawley (R-MO), Reed (D-RI), Capito (R-WV), Scott (R-SC), and Graham (R-SC) cosponsored.

Limited testosterone production and partial maturation of Sertoli cells occurred in prepubertal testis grafts, suggests that longer periods of grafting and/or identification of additional factors are required to develop testicular transplantation as a model for fertility preservation in male survivors of childhood cancer.

The Congressional Childhood Cancer Caucus provided a virtual message from its four co-chairs since the community could not meet in person this September for the 11th Annual Childhood Cancer Summit.

Now, early results of a clinical trial show that for children and adults with advanced soft tissue sarcoma, adding the targeted drug pazopanib (Votrient) to chemotherapy and radiation treatment is safe and increases the chances that most of the tumor will be dead before surgery.

Hodgkin lymphoma is one of the most curable forms of pediatric cancer, with long-term survival rates of 90% or higher . However, treatment can result in potentially life-threatening or -altering long-term side effects.  New recommendations from NCCN synthesize the latest evidence and expert-consensus to make sure every child receives appropriate, but not excessive, treatment.

The US Food and Drug Administration has granted expanded access to BioMed Valley Discoveries’ investigational ERK inhibitor ulixertinib for patients including adolescents with cancers driven by alterations in the MAPK pathway.

The aim of the EU Pharmaceutical Strategy is to ensure Europe’s supply of safe and affordable medicines to meet patients’ needs and support the European pharmaceutical industry’s innovation efforts.

Upcoming webinars and Online Opportunities:

 Neuroblastoma Parent Global Symposium on November 6th and 7th, 2020 offers a free, online, 2-day event that will bring together families directly affected by neuroblastoma around the world with those who work to treat, help and support them.  Researchers and clinicians will lead sessions to provide information on current treatments around the world and share emerging therapies. Registration is now open to reserve a space for this free event!

SIOP 2019 Webcasts are now available online for free.