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!
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
— Theodore Roosevelt
Diverse Biotech, Inc. has announced it has signed an initial partnership agreement with The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University Medical Center to study its potential new therapeutic candidates in glioblastoma. The research will be performed in animal models of the disease to evaluate the efficacy and tissue distribution of Diverse Biotech's new drug compounds.
To help doctors differentiate between the severity of cancers in the brain, an international team of researchers built a machine learning model that uses complex mathematics to learn how various types of brain tumors look in the brain.
In a recent study published in Autophagy, researchers at Kanazawa University show how abnormalities in a gene called TPR can lead to pediatric brain cancer.
The combined analysis of texture parameters of the CARS and TPEF signal proved to be most suited for the discrimination of non-tumor brain versus brain tumors (low and high grade astrocytoma, oligodendroglioma, glioblastoma, recurrent glioblastoma, brain metastases of lung, colon, renal and breast cancer and of malignant melanoma) leading to a correct rate of 96% (sensitivity: 96%, specificity: 100%).
Treatment for patients newly diagnosed with glioblastoma varies based on the size and location of the tumor, but historically it’s been comprised of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. The new drug trial happening at UAB is focused on a different type of therapy, Drug Resistant Immunotherapy (DRI)
The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) continues to evolve as a worldwide leader in biomedicine, research and innovation. A Birmingham-based biopharmaceutical company has now announced the initiation of a Phase 1 clinical study of a novel Drug Resistant Immunotherapy (DRI) technology for the treatment of patients with newly-diagnosed glioblastoma. This trial is being conducted at UAB and is now active and open for enrollment.
