Alex’s Army is incredibly pleased and humbled to have presented a check to Dr. Jeffrey Dome, MD, PhD, in the amount of $100,000.00 to Children’s National on Thursday, Dec. 29th, 2016.
Dr. Dome is the chief of the Division of Oncology and the Division of Hematology and is also the chair of the Renal Tumor Committee for the Children’s Oncology Group (COG). He oversees clinical trials for Wilms tumors and other childhood kidney cancers in more than 200 children’s hospitals. He holds the Thomas Willson & Lenore Williams McKnew Professorship in Pediatric Oncology and has authored more than 30 articles and textbook chapters on pediatric kidney tumors.
Funding from this grant will support the REST study which is an immunotherapy trial for patients with high-risk solid tumors including Ewing sarcoma, Wilms tumor, Neuroblastoma, Rhabdomyosarcoma, Soft tissue sarcomas, Osteosarcoma, and Adenocarcinoma. The idea behind the study is to harvest T-cells from patients, grow them in a lab, and “train” the cells to target the WT1 protein (and two other proteins called survivin and PRAME). Once the cells are “trained” to target these proteins, they are given back to the patient in hopes of better fighting off the cancerous cells. An impact report will be provided for updates on the study progress.
Witnessing firsthand the harsh effects of chemotherapies on our children, we have great interest in helping to fund less toxic treatments that will reduce long term side effects for pediatric patients. This type of immunotherapy trial was a perfect fit to the type of research Alex’s Army was hoping to support with our 2016 research funding. Our Board voted unanimously on funding this trial and on Thursday members of Alex’s Army traveled to DC on Thursday to meet with Dr. Dome and his team.
This donation was made in memory and honor of our sweet Alex – and too many other children who have had to leave us too soon. This check was ONLY possible because of the ARMY of supporters who this past year have prayed, sponsored, donated, and come alongside our organization to make a difference for children and families impacted by various childhood cancers. We thank everyone who helped make this possible truly from the bottom of our hearts. While this trial came too late for our sweet Alex, who as many of you know passed away in June of this year, we are hopeful and will be prayerful that this treatment will bring researchers a few steps closer to finding cures and that the patients who have the opportunity to enroll in this study will find healing.
It takes an ARMY to fight childhood cancers and TOGETHER we are Alex’s Army!
Alex’s Army is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose mission is to raise awareness to the lack of funding for childhood cancers, to provide funding to further research with a focus on Wilms Tumor, and to provide support for the childhood cancer community through faith, hope, and love.