Members Help Each Other Spread the Word to Families During the Pandemic

CAC2 Members Greg Aune, Max Cure Foundation, and Solving Kids Cancer helped to bring answers to a community in turmoil over the Covid 19 crisis by co-promoting each others’ webinars to get information into more people’s hands: Dr. Gregory Aune “COVID-19: Addressing Family Concerns for Children with Cancer and Survivors” Dr. Timothy Cripe “Latest COVID-19 Insights from Doctors + Stories from the Frontline to inform Childhood Cancer Families & the General Community” Ryan Norton “Stress, Anxiety and Coping with COVID-19: A Conversation for Families in the Childhood Cancer Community”

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Guest Blog–Kids First Second Chance: Engaging the Community in Fostering Pediatric Genomics Research

By Guest blogger Valerie Cotton, Kids First Program Manager, NICHD Childhood cancers and structural birth defects have profound, lifelong effects on children and their families. Birth defects are the leading cause of death in the first year of life, and cancer remains the leading cause of childhood disease-related mortality beyond the first year of life, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Moreover, a child born with a birth defect is at a higher risk for childhood cancer, suggesting these conditions may be caused by shared genetic pathways. However, limited data and resources are available to investigate potential genetic [...] Read more

CAC2 Member Blog–#Moonshot4Kids

By CAC2 Member Janet Demeter, Jack's Angels Did you know that brain cancer is the leading cause of death in children with cancer?  It’s also one of the least-funded areas of cancer research.  DIPG, diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, is perhaps the deadliest of them all.  The experience of DIPG is a terrible wake-up call:   with no viable solutions, the discovery that profits and numbers count more than the value of your child’s life, DIPG exemplifies in a profound way the experience that so many children with cancer and their families endure–to watch their children die in utter helplessness. We would [...] Read more

CAC2 Member Blog–Except for Tissue

By CAC2 Student Member Nikki Lyons I always knew I wanted to be a scientist. This meant that when I was younger, I loved watching movies and shows featuring some scientific aspect. Their endless supplies of anything they could possibly need, the sparks of brilliance and the immediacy of working experience piqued an interest but were as far from the truth of the scientific process as they could be. Science is slow and arduous; it can go wrong at any step of the way. The first steps of science are pretty simple, observe something you’re interested in and ask a […]

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CAC2 Webinar–Tissue Donation: The Critical but often Overlooked Piece of the Research Puzzle

Our February CAC2 All-Member webinar focused on the role that tumor tissue can play in childhood cancer research efforts.  Katie Gnatt from Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation and Ginny McLean from Swifty Foundation welcomed Dr. Patrick Reynolds, Director of The Childhood Cancer Repository, and Dr. Angela Waanders, Director of Precision Medicine Oncology and Executive Board Chair of the Children's Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium to present the webinar. Dr. Reynolds spoke about tissue donation/collection during treatment and Dr. Waanders spoke on post mortem tissue collection.  As we move towards a world with less toxic, more personalized forms of treatment, the availability of different types [...] Read more

CAC2 Member Blog–Jointly Sponsored Moonshot4Kids Congressional Briefing

CAC2 Members Jack’s Angels, Dragon Master Foundation, Max Cure Foundation, Children’s Cancer Cause, and National Brain Tumor Society joined together with others in the community through the DIPG Advocacy Group to hold the Moonshot4Kids Congressional Briefing on February 13 to raise awareness of H. Res. 114, which “Expressing support for the designation of the 17th day in May as “DIPG Awareness Day” to raise awareness and encourage research into cures for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) and pediatric cancers in general.” You can read more about the Briefing and H. Res. 114 at CAC2 Blog Post #Moonshot4Kids. According to CAC2 […]

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Guest Blog–The 4 C’s of the Holiday Season: Chess, Competition, Comaradery, Charity

By Guest blogger C. Davis Buenger Can blitz improve your chess? Maybe yes, maybe no.  Can playing blitz could change the world?  Team Berlin thinks so! Last month, Team Berlin, an adult chess team in Ohio took up a challenge I suggested to play a three-week holiday competition:  whoever improved their chess.com blitz rating the most between December 12 and January 4 would win.  To make things more meaningful, each player picked a charity to play for, with the donation pool staked by the participants going to the winner’s choice of charity. Seven team members--Davis Buenger, Scott Harkema, Zach Kountz, [...] Read more

CAC2 Webinar–Accelerating Drug Development for Children and Adolescents with Cancer

We were pleased to invite CAC2 members, associate members, student members, supporting organizations to our December CAC2 All-member webinar where Susan Weiner (Children's Cancer Cause) hosted Dr. Gilles Vassal, chair of ACCELERATE, an international nonprofit. Dr. Vassal discussed ACCELERATE and its fresh approach to addressing the complex challenges of developing innovative pediatric cancer therapies in the new regulatory environment. View the webinar below. Read more