December’s All-Member Webinar was presented by Dr. Karlyne Reilly, Director of the Center for Cancer Research Rare Tumor Initiative at the National Cancer Institute.
Rare tumors pose unique challenges for patients, their families, and the researchers working to develop new therapies. In this webinar Dr. Reilly reviewed these specific challenges and how increased patient engagement in rare tumor research can help to overcome them. MyPART is a patient engagement network being developed in the Center for Cancer Research at NCI focused on children, adolescents, and young adults with rare solid tumors. Dr. Reilly described the network being developed and the goals to involve patients in research, to better understand the biology of rare tumors, and to develop new treatments for rare solid tumors.
Dr. Reilly received her Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology from Harvard University and completed post-doctoral fellowship training at the Center for Cancer Research of MIT, where she held fellowships from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the AACR-Sidney Kimmel Foundation, and the American Cancer Society.
She has led a basic research group at the Center for Cancer Research at NCI since 2002 focused on understanding the biology of nervous system tumors that are associated with Neurofibromatosis type 1. In 2016, Dr. Reilly was appointed the Director of the Center for Cancer Research Rare Tumor Initiative. The mission of the initiative is to accelerate the development of therapies for rare tumors by fostering collaborative basic and clinical research. She is currently co-leading the development of MyPART (My Pediatric and Adult Rare Tumor network) together with Dr. Brigitte Widemann to improve patient engagement in rare tumor research.