What we found is that research is the key to discovering safer, more effective treatments that give children a chance at longer, healthier lives. Our funding is critical for doctors developing innovative treatments, who often face barriers to launching clinical trials. CKc funding provides researchers the time and resources needed to advance their work.

Researchers like Dr. Ted Johnson at the Georgia Cancer Center and Augusta University who received CKc’s first-ever grant in 2015. His Phase I study on indoximod for children with progressive brain tumors has since led to two clinical trials across five sites and an expanded compassionate-use protocol, providing access to patients who wouldn’t otherwise qualify. Thanks to CKc’s seed funding, more than 300 treatment options for children with brain tumors have emerged—an impact that continues today.

Do you want to know what a treatment option can actually mean to these kids and their families? I’ll let Dr. Johnson tell you: “…we have found that a number of the children receiving this treatment are demonstrating quality of life improvements, such as returning to school, taking long-delayed vacation trips, engaging in activities they cherish such as hiking and rock climbing, moving into a dormitory at college, attending sporting events, and others. For these children, immunotherapy has made a major impact on their lives.”

A decade, $4.5 million, and countless lives touched—this is the power of investing in pediatric cancer research. And we’re just getting started driving discoveries and delivering change.

Gratefully,

Dana Nichols
Executive Director
Cannonball Kids’ cancer Foundation

Our goal with Young Investigator (YI) Grants is that by the end of their grant period (typically three years), they will be working toward opening their own clinical trial and can apply to CKc again for a Clinical Trial (CT) Grant. 43% of YI grant recipients who have completed their grants have applied for and received a CT grant like Dr. Cassie Kline (shown in photo on left) who received a YI grant back in 2017 and in 2018 received a CT grant. When Dr. Kline first received funding, she was an adjunct professor and now is an assistant professor and the Director of Neuro-Oncology Clinical Research at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) who has led multiple clinical trials.

Investing in infrastructure provides much needed support to efforts that develop partnerships and collaboration directly leading to more access for patients. Take the case of the Pediatric Neuro Oncology Consortium (PNOC) led by Dr. Sabine Mueller (shown in photo on left). PNOC develops and runs clinical trials for brain tumors. CKc awarded Dr. Mueller and PNOC funding in 2019 that allowed them, for the first time, to open their trials at sites across Europe and Australia. Since receiving funding from CKc, PNOC has conducted three trials using these expanded sites with many more in various stages of development.

Another important area of research is in understanding who is and isn’t getting into clinical trials. CKc-funded researcher, Dr. Lena Winestone (shown in photo on right) studied the social determinants of health for high-risk neuroblastoma patients. This research was included as part of a Children’s Oncology Group (COG) trial to understand the difficulties for families looking to enroll in a trial. This research has provided significant data to researchers to develop trials in a way to address these issues and Dr. Winestone has more data collection efforts underway with another COG study and is pursuing other collaborations to continue this work.

Your investment in CKc fosters collaboration that will build toward a future where anyone seeking options can find one that meets their needs, whether that means access to a trial or a new treatment for a previously incurable cancer.

Gratefully,

Matt Kopkin
Grants Administrator
Cannonball Kids’ cancer Foundation