Megan's Mission Foundation Awards $100,000 in Rhabdomyosarcoma Research Funding

The Children’s Cancer Therapy Development Institute was awarded $100,000 for groundbreaking Rhabdomyosarcoma research by the Megan’s Mission Foundation.

BEAVERTON, OREGON, UNITED STATES, February 11, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Children’s Cancer Therapy Development Institute² (cc-TDI) was generously awarded $100,000 in support of two groundbreaking research studies for Rhabdomyosarcoma by the Megan’s Mission Foundation. This funding furthers cc-TDI’s work into two key areas – the continuation of testing already FDA approved drugs for efficacy on treating rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) and investigating the ability to utilize immunotherapy as a therapy option for alveolar and embryonal RMS.

The Citizen Scientist Project (CSP), spearheaded by the Megan’s Mission Foundation supporters in 2021, focused on rapid translation of drug efficacy for RMS by repurposing FDA approved drugs. In the first year, CSP, which embeds patient families into cc-TDI’s research team weekly, 6 compounds were identified as potential degrader drugs for PAX-FOXO1, the protein making RMS resistant to chemotherapy. This second-year funding allows researchers to continue looking at these compounds and to further understand effects of doxycycline on RMS.

Immunotherapy has demonstrated promising results in adult forms of cancer, leukemias and lymphomas – however immunotherapy for sarcomas has been elusive. Part-two of this award supports additional research for the further testing and optimization of a unique immunotherapy technique to be used as a treatment option for children with RMS. If successful, immunotherapy’s lower toxicity could improve outcomes and lessen the risk of secondary cancers, often caused by harsh chemotherapy treatments.

The Megan's Mission Foundation¹ is dedicated to furthering Megan Bugg's dream of ending childhood cancer through advocacy and research. Prior to her passing from Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma at the age of 20, Megan had raised nearly $1,000,000 to fund various childhood cancer research projects at Lurie Children's Hospital and the Children's Cancer Therapy Development Institute. “The Megan's Mission Foundation is proud to continue Megan's legacy by donating $100,000 to fund two RMS research projects at CC-TDI that were near and dear to her heart. We are grateful to all the generous people who continue to support Megan's Mission of ending childhood cancer. Our organization is very proud to support the innovative research conducted by Dr. Charles Keller and his amazing team at CC-TDI."

About cc-TDI: The Children’s Cancer Therapy Development Institute (cc-TDI, www.cc-tdi.org), is a non-profit biotech organization whose mission is to translate scientific discovery into clinical trials by understanding and providing new disease-specific treatment options for children with cancer. cc-TDI’s research team of biologists and biomedical engineers work closely to identify targets on cancer cells and provide evidence-based testing for the selection of new drugs to be used in childhood cancer phase I and phase II clinical trials.

cc-TDI Media Contact: Erika Ellis, Communications Lead (Erika@cc-tdi.org). Social media: Facebook and Twitter @cctdilab, Instagram @cctdi, LinkedIn @Children’s Cancer Therapy Development Institute.

Erika Ellis
Children's Cancer Therapy Development Institute
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¹ https://cfgrundycounty.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create/fund?funit_id=1330
² https://cc-tdi.org/