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Foundation News
New Foundation Web site launched!
We have now completed the very big - but exciting - task of creating a new Web site for our Foundation. We invite you to take a look, at www.childhoodcancer.ca and learn more about what we do, what we are planning for the future and how you can help.
Scholarship Program
We are delighted to have received close to 50 applications from across Canada for our Scholarship Program. This is the highest number our Foundation has ever received. A tribute to the improving survival rates for childhood cancer patients (close to 75%). We will be issuing cheques towards the end of August. CONGRATULATIONS to all our applicants on graduating from high school. (See below to find how you could Adopt-A-Scholarship)
Toddle for the Cure
We are delighted that a new Foundation fundraising event – Toddle for the Cure -will be piloted in September at the Upper Canada Mall in Newmarket Ontario . The mall, owned by Ivanhoe Cambridge, who own major malls from coast-to-coast, will host and promote the event, and we will engage the support of local high school students in running the event. For more information on the Toddle concept, click here
Upcoming Events
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
Please visit our website to see what you can do to support Childhood Cancer Awareness Month activities in your community. Please let us know if you have any other ideas that we could share through E-NEWS or our Web site.
ICCCPO/SIOP Conference, Vancouver (September 20-24)
Meet parents, survivors, cancer support groups and medical professionals from around the world. Register: www.siop.nl/siop2005 or www.icccpo.org
2005 Gold Ribbon Gala
Mark your calendars for Monday, November 21 when we host our Second Annual Gold Ribbon Gala at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel in Toronto. For information about tickets, silent auction prize donations or sponsorship, please call Christina Chen at 416 489-6440 x15 or 1-800-363-1062 or [email protected]
Other Events
International Bone Marrow Failure Scientific Symposium
The Bone Marrow Failure Scientific Symposium is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health - National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute, Office of Rare Disease and National Cancer Institute and organized by the Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation. The American Society of Hematology is offering CME's for this meeting.
The conference will be chaired by Dr. Jaroslaw Maciejewski of the Cleveland Clinic and Dr. Neal Young of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
The symposium will be held in Washington, D.C. on October 17 - 19, 2005, at the Lowe's L'Enfant Plaza Hotel. Approximately 200 researchers and doctors from around the world will be attending this important meeting. To register, please go to www.aamds.org or call (800) 747-2820.
Fundraising Success
Dentist helps create “Adopt-A-Scholarship”
A recent trip to the dentist by one of our Foundation staff ended in the dentist’s office offering to Adopt-A-Scholarship ($1,000) for one of our applicants. If you would like more information about how you can make an “Adoption” of a childhood cancer survivor who has applied for a university scholarship, or to promote the concept in your community, please contact [email protected]
R.O.C.K. Ride
On July 9, the Second Annual R.O.C.K. Ride (Ride for Our Cancer Kids) in Cambridge, Ontario raised about $26,000 - close to double last year's total. Congratulations to event founders Bob and Lori Thomas and to all the sponsors and participants for such a wonderful fundraiser for childhood cancer research.
NAV CAN Golf Tournament
This is the second year that the Foundation has been the recipient of the funds raised at this event in Ottawa. More than $17,000 was raised. Thanks to all participants and silent auction donors for their generous support.
In the news
Growth Hormone Helps Hearts of Childhood Cancer Patients
http://www.healthday.com/view.cfm?id=526628
By Amanda Gardner
Many survivors of childhood cancer end up with hearts that are too small for their bodies. As adults, this can translate into heart failure, transplant waiting lists, and even death.
A new study of these survivors has found, almost by accident, that growth hormone therapy resulted in larger hearts that were more in line with their body size. "This was a safe therapy, and it brought them closer to normal," said Dr. Steven Lipshultz, lead author of the study, which appears in the June issue of Pediatrics. "The No. 1 problem that causes children around the world to need a heart transplant is cardiomyopathy or unhealthy heart muscle," explained Lipshultz, a professor and chairman of pediatrics at the University of Miami School of Medicine. "One of the main causes of cardiomyopathy is the inability of the heart muscle to keep up with the size of the body. They are basically outgrowing their heart." And one reason for the inability of the heart muscle to keep up with the body's growth is when anthracycline chemotherapy drugs are administered to children with leukemia. "The chemotherapy they received kept them alive, but it wasn't specific for cancer cells. A number of heart muscles were killed as well," Lipshultz said. The children in this study actually received growth hormone not because of heart problems, but because they were shorter than other children their age. When they reached an appropriate height, doctors stopped the administration of growth hormone. But there was an unanticipated and very welcome "side effect." Thirty-four childhood cancer survivors treated with anthracyclines for their cancer and later with growth hormone saw a normalization of the wall thickness of the heart's left ventricle (the main pumping chamber), as well as heart rate and blood pressure.
China sets up fund to help children with leukemiahttp://uk.news.yahoo.com/050701/323/fmh58.html
By AFP
China's Red Cross Foundation has set up a special fund to help poor children suffering from leukemia after a father tried to kill himself so his organs could be sold to raise money for his sick son, state media said. The life of the desperate father, whose son had leukemia , was saved, but his case highlighted the plight of many Chinese patients who cannot afford to have treatment, the China Daily said. The new fund, called the "Little Angel Fund," currently has no money in it. Officials said the fund was urgently needed because many of China 's four million people with leukemia cannot afford treatment. Prohibitive medical costs, usually 200,000 to 600,000 yuan (24,000 to 72,000 dollars) per patient, often push affected families into bankruptcy, the report said. Many patients have to give up treatment due to a lack of cash. The Beijing-based Sunshine Volunteer Association, which set up a stem cell database in 2002, said it helped 17 leukemia patients find "matching" blood to carry out stem cell transplants last year. The problem reflects the fact that the country's medical insurance system still leaves much to be desired, said Yang. China 's health care system no longer takes care of the poor as it once did before economic reforms were launched more than two decades ago.
Experts Push for Faster Child Cancer Drugs
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050607/ap_on_he_me/child_cancer_2
By Lauren Neergaard
Nine-year-old Killian Owen was the first child to try an experimental leukemia treatment that was showing promise in adults - but the chance came too late. Yet the youngster left a precious legacy: Scientists are using his preserved cells to help create stronger drugs for other children desperate for new options. Killian's saga illustrates both the pitfalls and promise of pediatric cancer research. Scientists are finding exciting leads, but few novel therapies for children are in the pipeline. When promising ones do come along, sick youngsters often must wait years for safety testing in adults to be done before they get a shot. There are signs that may be changing. In a first, the Food and Drug Administration recently gave fast-track approval for a cancer drug for children to begin selling even before testing in adults is finished. The drug, Clolar, is to treat relapsed leukemia. FDA's drug chief, Dr. Janet Woodcock, says she's open to speeding through more child-first cancer treatments whenever those smallest patients have no good options. Childhood cancer survival is at an all-time high, with 80 percent of patients now cured. But more than 2,000 children a year still die, making cancer the leading pediatric killer disease. While much of the progress came from mixing-and-matching adult chemotherapies in young patients, specialists agree it will take more novel approaches to help the remaining hardest-to-treat children. That's because even cancers with the same name can act differently in children than in adults.
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