Research Shows Families Want Option to Donate Post-mortem Tissue
Families who lose a child to brain cancer, want doctors to give them the option to donate their child’s tissue.
Donating tissue not only contributes to research for a cure, but donating helps families grieve and see something good come from their tragic loss.
These conclusions come after surveying more than 100 families whose children died of brain cancer as detailed in an American Society of Clinical Oncology Journal of Clinical Oncology article. Gift from a Child founders Al and Patti Gustafson co-authored the article, along with clinicians and researchers from seven other institutions.
Project Accelerate
Gift from a Child partner, the Children’s Brain Tumor Network (CBTN) has caught the attention of the NIH in a big way! The National Institute of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI)’s Childhood Cancer Data Initiative (CCDI) have taken on the herculean task of sequencing the remaining tumor specimens in CBTN’s biorepository! Read…
Young Investigator Award
Swifty is proud to partner with Alex’s Lemonade Stand to help fund their Young Investigators Innovation grant. Dr. Eric Raabe’s from Johns Hopkins is researching the most devastating kind of Medulloblastoma, MYC-driven medullo. The good news is Dr. Raabe’s lab has been successful with finding an oral drug with better brain penetration that will kill…
Let’s Get This Done
Our good friend Nancy Goodman, founder and executive director of Kids v Cancer recently had a blog published by The Cancer Letter. It was Nancy who guided us through Michael’s decision to donate his tissue for research. She continues to be an unstoppable proponent for advancing pediatric cancer research. Excerpt from The Cancer Letter Blog:…
We Just Don’t Know
Today, I had to explain how cancer works to my Biology 101 students. I had to tell them how cells can find ways to bypass the checkpoints that are meant to protect us. I had to tell them how a single mutation can cause a tumor to begin forming. I had to tell them how…
Gift from a child….for a child
In December, Swifty convened a Family Forum in Philadelphia of families who had donated their child’s post mortem brain tissue. Not exactly your typical holiday gathering, but so much good has come out of our time together. In the coming months you will be hearing a lot about the initiative that was launched at the…
A Dream You Dream Together
I never knew the truth of this quote by John Lennon until now: A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality. Our California Dream became reality when through your generous support we were able to fund Michelle Monje’s tissue navigator at Stanford and also fund the next…
CBTTC Pediatric Brain Tumor Atlas
You may have missed this announcement; lost in the shuffle of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Maybe you saw the announcement and didn’t quite understand the importance of the launch. The Pediatric Brain Tumor Atlas is a major step forward in advancing collaboration and accelerating research. We are proud to be part of this organization and…
Why is Tissue Not Sexy?
Denver is a great city… just not as “hippie/granola” as I pictured. We went for ISPNO… the International Symposium on Pediatric Neuro-Oncology and came away feeling encouraged and excited that tissue donation is absolutely the right focus for Swifty. ISPNO is held every other year and doctors and researchers from all over the world attend. …
We hear it over and over again.
Our first year at ASPHO was one for the books. It was amazing to be around so many other people dedicated to the cause of fighting pediatric cancer. There were representatives from hospitals and foundations from all over the world. Seeing a case study presentation by hospitals in areas from Egypt to the U.K. to…
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