Six Months of Momentum
January 1, 2025 – June 30, 2025
FROM OUR CEO, Elizabeth C. Allen
Hi friends,
We’re excited to share this special impact report highlighting six months of meaningful work from January through June 2025. This abbreviated report reflects our transition to a new fiscal year reporting cycle — an important step to better align our resources with our research partners, grant timelines, and long-term priorities.
At the same time, we are refining our strategic direction for the years ahead. While that work is underway, we are deeply grateful to our donors, partners and families who drive our mission: accelerating innovative research and supporting families throughout their cancer journey.
Through your generosity, we can fund bold ideas that have the potential to change the future of childhood cancer. Thank you for being part of our community and for believing better is possible.
Fifty Years of Fellowships
Children’s Cancer Research Fund has supported pediatric cancer research fellowships at the University of Minnesota for nearly 40 years. A fellowship is an optional, 3-year, advanced training opportunity for doctors after residency, allowing them to develop deep expertise in a medical specialty.
CCRF has awarded fellowships to more than 100 researchers during the critical early years of their career. Many are renowned leaders – heading up major cancer centers, pioneering survivorship studies, advancing bone marrow transplant techniques, bringing innovative treatments to clinical trials, and more. And they carry the Minnesota model of patient-centered research with them everywhere they go.
Now, a new commitment will extend CCRF’s support for fellowships to a full 50-year milestone. The newly named Children’s Cancer Research Fund Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellowship Program at the University of Minnesota aims to support five emerging clinician-researchers each year as they develop advanced skills in both patient care and research. Already, CCRF has awarded $1.2 million for the first two years of a ten-year commitment totaling more than $7.7 million.
“Coming into a fellowship, our trainees are well-skilled as general pediatricians. They may have received some exposure to oncology, some exposure to bone marrow transplant or to cellular therapies, but very surface level. When you come into your fellowship, that's really when you become an oncologist.”
– Dr. Lucie Turcotte, Associate Professor and Division Director, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, University of Minnesota (Fellow, 2010-13)
We are proud to support the current cohort of CCRF Fellows – Michelle, Anne, Dan, Tyler and Sophia – as they continue the work of improving treatments and outcomes for all children who face cancer.
When Research Pivots, Progress Continues
Support from our donor community is helping bring better treatments to children with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), led by world-renowned pediatric cancer researcher Dr. John Wagner at the University of Minnesota.
As Dr. Wagner shares, “Childhood cancer research is rarely a straight line. It’s multi-layered, intricate work that depends on collaboration across researchers, clinicians, and pharmaceutical partners.”
In fact, research can be unpredictable and sometimes even the most accomplished scientists must pivot to pursue the strongest scientific pathway. Dr. Wagner and his team recently made a strategic shift in their research plans, and it could be a blessing in disguise.
When faced with unexpected changes to the original “Natural Killers” research project, Dr. Wagner chose to pursue Adapt NK – an approach that builds on prior learnings and allows us to continue to focus on developing new treatments for children facing AML.
Like all research trials, the revised plan requires FDA approval. That rigorous process is essential, ensuring treatments are both safe and effective before reaching patients.
Because of you, we can adapt with confidence, move forward with purpose, and remain focused on what matters most: accelerating better treatments and healthier futures for children and families.
Five Grants Awarded, Totaling $2.3M.
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Targeted Protein Degradation of MYC in Relapsed/Refractory Pediatric AML
Michael Andreeff, MD, PhD
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
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Improving the Social Connectedness of Pediatric Brain Tumor Survivors
Matthew Hocking, PhD
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
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Evaluate the combination of ARL200 with synthetic antigen peptides to mount an anti-tumor response
Michael Olin, PhD
University of Minnesota
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Children’s Cancer Research Fund Pediatric Oncology/Hematology Fellowship Program
University of Minnesota
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Seed grants for support of research in pediatric hematology/oncology, epidemiology and bone marrow transplantation
University of Minnesota
Reaching the Community
Thanks to donated airtime, our public service announcements are aired at no cost – preserving donor support for mission-driven priorities. With placements in the top 20 Designated Market Areas (DMAs), our messages reach millions, generating substantial advertising value and amplifying awareness that would otherwise require significant paid investment.
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Broadcast TV
+ 37,199 PSA airings
+ Donated media value: $6.9M
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Radio
+ 3,614 PSA airings
+ Donated media value: $1.2M
1,254 new donors in all 50 states
Whether you joined our cause decades ago or are supporting us for the first time, you are helping shape what comes next for kids with cancer. Thank you for moving this work forward!
LeJeune Whole Family Wellbeing Programs at CCRF
Although this impact report centers on a shortened fiscal year, some of our LeJeune Whole Family Wellbeing Programs took place outside that window of time. We’re pleased to share those highlights with you as well.
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Camp Norden & Virtual Camp
+ 46 campers
+ 8 days
+ 23 volunteers including a CCRF board member, four junior counselors & 12 Camp Knutson staff
+ 8 nurses and 2 physicians
+ 2 music therapists
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C.C. Bear
+ 623 plush comfort bears sent to 316 families for kids fighting cancer and their siblings – at no cost to them.
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Big Dreams Tour
+ Dozens of families nationwide received a treasured digital keepsake capturing their child’s creativity and imagination.
Where Lab Meets Legacy
Because of you, Eva’s story goes beyond a cancer diagnosis – it focuses on hope.
When this 8-year-old’s smile began to droop and she lost hearing in one ear, Eva’s family never fathomed a devastating cancer diagnosis.
But diffuse midline glioma (DMG), an incurable brain tumor, is what was causing Eva’s symptoms. Children typically live just 9 to 13 months after diagnosis.
Yet, thanks to your generosity, Eva was part of something extraordinary: she was among fewer than a dozen children participating in a groundbreaking clinical trial in the Twin Cities, the culmination of more than 20 years of research at the University of Minnesota, made possible by a legacy of support from Children’s Cancer Research Fund donors.
For families facing DMG, this trial represents long-awaited progress... and hope.
“For far too long, there hasn’t been an effective way to fight DMG,” says Anne Bendel, MD, director of the Neuro-oncology Program at Children’s Minnesota. “This clinical trial is a critical step toward changing that reality for kids. Caring for [these] patients reminds us why research matters—every child deserves a healthy, happy future with the people they love most.”
A healthy child’s immune system can attack and defeat some cancer cells, but DMG puts up a “protein shield.” Decades of research have finally produced a shield-busting molecule. The new clinical trial is testing this molecule in combination with a new vaccine.
Major U.S. investment firms, top wealth advisors and philanthropists across the country came together with Children’s Cancer Research Fund to support the clinical trial – building on a legacy of collaboration that continues to move this work forward.
And because CCRF donors committed to accelerating research, Eva can make every moment count – going to school, taking dance and more.
“We hope with this trial, we can give kids more time, and we can give our child more time,” says Eva’s mother, Sandra. “Maybe this can be the starting point for a cure.”