Katherine Matthay, MD, co-Principal Investigator, is a professor of Pediatrics and director of the Phase I program and responsible for translational and clinical research in solid tumors. She mentors Dr. Vo, and oversee the conduct and analysis of this project, and meets with her weekly.
Kieuhoa Vo, MD, Principal Investigator, has originated this project and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the patient enrollment, sample collection, and data analysis. She will coordinate the genetic analysis with Genentech. She is trained as a master of clinical research and now adjunct instructor in pediatric oncology.
Objective: To describe sensitivity and specificity of somatic mutation detection in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) as compared with paired tumor tissue in two “discovery” cohorts: A) patients with new diagnoses of high-risk solid and CNS tumors; and B) patients with relapsed and refractory solid and CNS tumors.
A coalition of sarcoma clinicians and researchers at UCSF has launched a protocol entitled “Molecular Profiling in Bone and Soft Tissue Malignancies.” The goal of this study is to facilitate the collection, storage, and clinical annotation of sarcoma tissues that are obtained as part of our routine standard of care (for instance, at the time of a new diagnosis or when a biopsy is done to confirm a relapse). Tissue will be stored for extraction of DNA and RNA for genetic or epigenetic studies, and also implanted into mice to create “patient derived xenograft” (PDX) models.
T-Cell Trial Therapy- Donation $20,000 (March 2015)
Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital
“SEPTEMBER IS CHILDHOOD CANCER AWARENESS MONTH
www.TeamGFoundation.org/sofias-courage (toward pediatric cancer)
Last June of 2014 brought tremendous pain to our family as our oldest daughter Sofia was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia at the age of 6yrs.
Since her diagnosis, our sweet Sofia has endured hundreds of pokes, received daily chemotherapy and swallowed an abundance of pills, which will not end until September of 2016. This year has challenged our family, yet it has brought incredible awareness of the love surrounding us and the tremendous support that exists from our family, friends and community. Although, our minds are often focused on September 2016 when we look forward to CELEBRATING Sofia’s clean bill of health, the truth is, cancer will not be gone for all children. September is the heavy reminder that thousand of children are suffering from this horrible disease called CANCER.
Last September, our family set on a mission to raise money for childhood cancer in conjunction with Team G Childhood Cancer Foundation. Over the course of the next 2 months, we had raised over $35,000 from the generous donations from our community.
Many people often wonder after donating…”Where Was My Money Applied”? I will let you know that it was applied both indirectly and directly to save children’s lives. It was extremely important for us to allocate the funds to the most effective areas to make the biggest impact. A portion of the funds were allocated and dispersed to some of the most advance cancer research programs underway at Seattle’s Children’s Hospital.
I am VERY proud to announce that $20,000 dollars was directly applied to support a medical breakthrough treatment for leukemia that arrived at Stanford in April. T-Cell Therapy (CTL019) provides prolonged remissions to patients who are facing death from advanced leukemia after standard treatments have failed. We received the honor to hand-deliver our check to the research team (including Sofia’s doctor), who was scheduled to administer their first treatment to a child who had relapsed with leukemia for the third time. As the doctor stated,”Prior to this day, I would have had to face the family to tell them that we had exhausted all efforts for their child. But instead, I was able to deliver hope…one more chance for survival.”
Much of the T-Cell trial therapy and research has been funded by a major pharmaceutical company. However, there were existing gaps in the funding to train the medical the staff on the inflammatory response in the patient which occurs after administering the therapy. Controlling the body’s response after the treatment is critical to the survival of the child.
In my mind, there is no question that your donation helped directly to SAVE A CHILD’S LIFE and will open the door to saving more lives moving forward. We will continue our fundraising efforts and continue to make a difference no matter how big or small!”
Denise Carr-Vernacchia, Sofia’s Mom
