Students in leadership positions learn about brain tumors and gain real world experience in running a non-profit business while raising funds for brain tumor research. Beneficiaries of the money we raise are Barrow Neurological Institute, National Brain Tumor Society, Phoenix Children's Hospital, Translational Genomics Research Institute, and University of Arizona.
"Be the change you wish to see in the world..." Gandhi
THANK YOU for those who attended the 2020 SSBTR Cure-a-thon
ANGEL’S STORY - as told by Angel's mother
On May 4, 2018 Angel Carden was like any ordinary 8 year old boy. He was just finishing up 3rd grade and enjoying the last days of Little League Baseball. After a day on the baseball field, Angel started to have seizures later on that night. We rushed him to an emergency room and a CT scan discovered that Angel had a large tumor growing in the back of his brain. Our world felt like it was ending, we were scared, and we desperately feared for our son’s dear life.
Angel was immediately transferred by ambulance to Phoenix Children’s Hospital, only one of a few places in the country that could properly care for our son. By the time we were admitted the tumor was causing increased pressure to his brain. This caused Angel to continuously vomit, barely speak, unable to move and started to lose his vision. Angel’s neurosurgeon Dr. Ruth Bristol was the one to diagnose our son with Stage 4 Medulloblastoma. She let us know that he had to immediately have surgery for 2 shunts, to relieve the pressure on his brain before any permanent damage was done. We spent 14 days in the Pediatric Intense Care Unit and Angel’s final surgery lasted over 7 hours to remove his brain tumor.
We prayed so much during that time, and had started to meet so many new people that cared for our son as much as we did. After the surgery Angel could barely move or talk, which is common with posterior fossa syndrome. When we left the hospital at the end of May, Angel was in a wheelchair and his Dad had to lift him into our car to take him home. Every day I watch my son defy the odds against him. He went to physical, speech, and occupational therapy; exceeded every goal they set for him in the span of 4 months. Since then Angel has went on to complete Proton Radiation Therapy as Scottsdale Mayo Clinic under Dr. Sameer Keole for about 8 weeks. He now walks, talks, and went from writing with his left hand to right hand. Angel is even going to school when he feels up to it. Angel just wanted to share his story to never give up, and he wants to give back for every child that may be going through the same circumstance that Angel has been through.
PLEASE SUPPORT SSBTR to help Angel and the far too many like him!
“The progress of the world will call for the best that all of us have to give.”
— Mary McLeod Bethune
NorthShore University HealthSystem (NorthShore) neurosurgeon, Julian Bailes, MD, is the first in Illinois to begin offering GammaTile® Therapy, a new approach to treating malignant brain tumors. The FDA-cleared, Surgically Targeted Radiation Therapy (STaRT) is designed to delay tumor regrowth for patients with high grade gliomas, meningiomas and brain metastases.
Northwest Biotherapeutics, Inc. (OTCQB: NWBO)("NW Bio"), a biotechnology company developing DCVax® personalized immune therapies for solid tumor cancers, today reported progress toward data lock for the Phase 3 trial of DCVax®-L for Glioblastoma brain cancer.
Oncologists hoping for more precise and individualized care for patients with brain cancers and metastases are continuing to research liquid biopsy technologies that could help them more easily and consistently analyze tumor genomics and monitor patients in ways that have so far been either difficult or impossible.
A Ludwig Cancer Research study has profiled, in a sweeping comparative analysis, the distinct immune landscapes of tumors that arise in the brain, or gliomas, and those that metastasize to the organ from the lungs, breast and skin. The study captures in granular detail how the functions, locations and characteristics of various immune cells sculpt the tumor microenvironment (TME) to thwart immune attack, support cancer cell survival and drive tumor progression.
A team of researchers at the University of Zurich (UZH) and the University Hospital Zurich (USZ) has now found what types of immune cells are present in what numbers in different types of brain tumors. These very precise "tumor maps" are essential to gain a better understanding of the individual immune components in the tumor and to develop targeted immunotherapies that activate an immune defense reaction.
The Ivy Brain Tumor Center at Barrow Neurological Institute announced that patient recruitment has opened for a new Phase 0 clinical trial to evaluate two targeted therapy drugs, abemaciclib and LY3214996. The study will evaluate central nervous system (CNS) penetration in patients with recurrent glioblastoma scheduled for resection. This is the first time a combination of these two drugs will be tested in brain tumor patients.
