KK’s Story – A True Trooper

Kathryn (KK to her friends and family) may only be 4 years old, but she is a no-nonsense girl. When it comes to her leukemia treatments, she wants to know exactly what’s happening, and she lets her care teams know she doesn’t need to be coddled.

“She packs her own bag with the toys she wants to play with,” said her mom, Brittany. “When the sweet child life specialists come in and try to do their job by distracting her from treatment, she’ll say, ‘I don’t need you.’ She’s just matter-of-fact about it all.”

Conquering treatment-resistant B-ALL

During high school, Loretta Li worked in the University of Chicago lab of Janet Rowley, who later won the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her groundbreaking work on cancer genetics. “She really was a pioneer,” noted Li, who is now a pediatric oncologist with Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of …

Delving into the data in search of new cures

With more than 10,000 experts at 200-plus institutions around the world, the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) is a research powerhouse. The consortium runs nearly 100 active clinical trials that aim to improve the care, survivorship and quality of life for children and adolescents with cancer. And all that adds up to an ever-mounting treasure trove of data, ripe for uncovering new insights into the best …

2021 Hard-to-Treat Award Winners

The Hard-To-Tread Award is a grant intended to support projects that enable the prevention, early detection and effective treatment of pediatric cancers that remain hard-to-treat. While treatment success has improved for many cancers, survival rates and therapy options have not changed for some cancers, including brain tumors, sarcomas, and acute myeloid leukemia. Each award is $250,000 over a period of 24 months.   Each year, CCRF …

Punch Pizza’s Impact on Childhood Cancer Research

Punch Pizza has partnered with CCRF since 2009 and contributed over $252,000. These funds directly support some of the most promising minds in childhood cancer research. We want to say thank you and share progress updates on the important work of the researchers who have been supported by the Spirit of Punch Award.   2018: Dr. Branden Moriarity Branden Moriarity, PhD, University of Minnesota Since Punch Pizza funded Dr. Branden Moriarity in 2018, his lab has been working on studying …

Our top 5 research wins of 2021

It’s up to you to make a difference for kids fighting cancer – and in 2021, you delivered. Because of you we funded 40 new research initiatives that will make the childhood cancer experience easier for kids and families.

Here are our top 5 childhood cancer research wins of 2021.

The Katie Hageboeck Children’s Cancer Research Fund Clinic

The Katie Hageboeck Children’s Cancer Research Fund Clinic About Katie’s Clinic The Katie Hageboeck Children’s Cancer Research Fund Clinic is designed to speed the translation of research into treatments for childhood cancer. It is adjacent to Masonic Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where one of the core areas is the treatment of the sickest kids with cancer or blood disorders.Healthcare professionals offer the highest quality …

Dream Further Campaign hits $2 million for cancer survivorship research and care

When childhood cancer survivor Ted Sibley finished his cancer treatment as a teenager, he received a t-shirt that said, “Finish Line.” He was proud to have reached the end of a long and difficult period of treatment – but his journey didn’t end there. Ted faced late-effects from his cancer treatment, and often didn’t know where to go to get specialized survivorship care.

In early 2021, CCRF launched the Dream Further campaign to raise $2 million for much-needed survivorship research and care coordination. In November 2021, with the help of a passionate community of supporters, the Dream Further campaign reached its ambitious goal.

CCRF-funded researcher is outsmarting the defenses of AML cancer cells

Shannon Conneely, MD, a pediatric hematologist-oncologist at Texas Children’s Hospital and researcher at Baylor College of Medicine, envisions cancer treatment like a maze with multiple exits. As chemotherapy drugs chase down the cancer cells, the craftiest of cells manage to find a back door out. Sometimes cancer cells temporarily stop dividing and grow “quiet” during treatment — only to return with a vengeance later. Conneely’s goal: …

Celebrating the naming of the Katie Hageboeck Children’s Cancer Research Fund Clinic

On Wednesday, October 13, longtime members of the Children’s Cancer Research Fund community gathered to celebrate the dedication of the Katie Hageboeck Children’s Cancer Research Fund Clinic. The newly named clinic at M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital honors the memory of 13-year-old Katie Hageboeck of Wayzata, Minnesota who requested that her savings for a new 10-speed bike be used to help kids with cancer. The Pediatric Specialty Care Journey Clinic at the Masonic Children’s Hospital, which provides world-class care to children and families facing childhood cancer, will now be called the Katie Hageboeck Children’s Cancer Research Fund Clinic. 

Layla’s Story – Living in Limbo with a Brain Tumor

Nine-year-old Layla knows way too much about cancer for her age. She can explain what a shunt does, what a port is for and she understands what’s going on when her mom, Autumn, talks with her doctors about what’s next in her treatment plan. Layla has been living with a brain tumor since she was 2 years old – she was diagnosed just before her third birthday. Her type of tumor is called brain stem glioma, a slow-growing cancer, but inoperable in Layla’s case because of where it’s located in her brain. Her medical history is too long to fit on the field trip permission forms she brings home from school – but for Layla, it’s always been this way. 

8 new scientists will kickstart their projects thanks to CCRF

Many great ideas go unexplored in the childhood cancer world due to a lack of funding. Thanks to donors like you, eight new projects are poised to kickstart in just a few weeks.

Each year, Children’s Cancer Research Fund grants young, highly qualified researchers with $100,000 to help set up their labs and launch their careers. Fewer and fewer scientists are choosing to embark on academic research, so it is more important than ever to invest in this generation of scientists today.

Sneaking past medulloblastoma’s micro-defenses

CCRF Emerging Scientist Award winner Giedre Krenciute is developing a Trojan horse of sorts to sneak past medulloblastoma’s armed defenses and kill tumor cells. She plans to change a patient’s special immune system cells, called T-cells, by transforming them into CAR T-cells or cells that can recognize and kill the cancer.

Cancer parents look back on what they didn’t know

Every parent of a child fighting cancer has a different story. But one thing we hear over and over when talking to cancer families is this…

“I hardly knew anything about childhood cancer before it happened to my child.”
In honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month this September, we asked parents of kids fighting cancer to look back and remember a time where they didn’t know, and tell us what they’ve learned since then. Here are their responses.

CCRF-funded researcher uses microscopic protein pathways to beat graft-versus-host disease

Kids like Alex often need blood or marrow transplants (BMTs) as part of their treatment plans. Typically, these transplants use immune cells (T-cells) from a donor, like a sibling or a match from a registry.

After a transplant, a few things could happen: the donor cells will attack primarily the child’s cancer cells (or “bad cells”) in her body and/or the donor’s cells will attack the child’s healthy (or “good”) cells.

Cancer is not the same in kids and adults – cancer parents explain why

No matter what age someone is at diagnosis, cancer is devastating. But when it comes to treatment and research, childhood cancers and adult cancers are not the same. In honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month this September, we asked a handful of cancer parents to help explain why cancer in kids is different than cancer in adults – and what you can do to help kids fighting cancer.

Ella’s Story – Facing Fear and Taking Action

Ella’s parents, Christina and Joe, remember the morning their cancer experience started – they woke up to four missed phone calls from their daughter’s pediatrician.

The day before, they’d taken 1-year-old Ella to the doctor for an ear infection, which wasn’t uncommon – but since Ella had looked a little pale lately, they also asked doctors to run a blood test to make sure everything was okay. The pediatrician had run the tests and found that Ella’s white blood cell counts were off the charts. They were calling with the news that this was a clear indication of leukemia.

Sara’s Story – What it Means to Survive

Sara Maas vividly remembers walking out of her doctor’s office the day she was diagnosed with cancer. She had just returned from her honeymoon with her new husband, Jason. She was walking out of the lobby area of her primary care doctor’s office to see the hematologist, who would give her the news that she had cancer. She didn’t know the news she was about to get, but others in the office did.

“I remember it so clearly – there were three people working there, all standing, quietly, apart from each other, who stopped what they were doing and somberly watched us walk down the hallway,” Sara said. “Jason got a feeling from the way they were looking at us – we were about to get really bad news.”