In 2023, The California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) used ACCO’s toolkits and social media frames for ACCO’s #GoGold campaign to spread awareness of childhood cancer and research that is being conducted at their facility. Their investments are over $20 million for childhood cancer brain tumor research at Stanford and City of Hope. As ACCO reached out to discuss CIRM’s #GoGold campaign, we wanted them to highlight their childhood cancer brain tumor research. Here is their article.
Leo David Wang, MD, PhD (left) | Photo: Courtesy City of Hope
Cancer remains the number one cause of death by disease for children in America. Every three minutes a child is diagnosed with cancer worldwide and approximately 40,000 children are receiving cancer treatment at any given time.
Childhood cancer survivors often experience many side effects including secondary cancers, heart damage, infertility, chronic hepatitis, and more.
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) is committed to continue funding innovative stem cell and gene therapy research for childhood cancer to provide more treatment options to children affected by the disease.
About the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM)
CIRM was founded in 2004 when 59% of California voters approved Proposition 71: the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative. That initiative provided CIRM with $3 billion to fund stem cell research in the state.
In 2020, California voters approved to continue funding CIRM through the passage of Proposition 14: The California Stem Cell Research, Treatments, and Cures Initiative of 2020. That vote of confidence provided CIRM with an additional $5.5 billion to continue funding regenerative medicine research and programs in the state.
Since its founding in 2004, CIRM has played a pivotal role in growing the scientific field, creating jobs across California, and fostering advancements that benefit diverse communities. CIRM is proud to have funded more than 100 clinical trials with the aim of accelerating the approval of new therapies for patients.
Some of those clinical trials address conditions affecting children with cancer.
Clinical Research Seeking Treatments for Brain Tumors
CIRM is supporting various clinical trials to find treatments for brain tumors, the most common solid tumor of childhood, with roughly 5,000 new diagnoses per year in the United States.
One clinical trial is supported by an $11.9 million award made to the founding director of the Stanford Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, Crystal Mackall, M.D. The trial will be testing a treatment for glioma, a devastating brain tumor that occurs primarily in children and young adults. Glioma tumors are almost always fatal. Until now, radiation therapy has been the main treatment option, but it only extends survival by a few months.
CIRM also provided $8.4 million in funding to support a Phase 1 clinical trial led by Leo David Wang, MD, PhD at City of Hope Children’s Cancer Center also targeting malignant brain tumors in children.
Both teams at Stanford and City of Hope Children’s Cancer Center will treat pediatric patients with aggressive brain tumors using CAR-T cell therapy.
CAR-T cell therapy modifies a patient’s own T cells (immune system cells) with a protein called chimeric antigen receptor cell (CAR). These newly created CAR T cells will be reintroduced back into patients where it is hoped they will identify and destroy the brain tumor cells.
“CAR T cell therapy is usually given intravenously, and then the cells travel through the bloodstream to find the tumor. But the blood-brain barrier separates the blood circulation from the central nervous system — which makes it hard for CAR T cells to access the brain,” Wang explained. “In this trial, we introduce the CAR T cells directly into the ventricles of the brain, which works much more effectively for brain tumors.”
The CIRM-funded research at Stanford and City of Hope Children’s Cancer Center has the potential to transform the landscape for lethal pediatric brain tumors and provide treatment options for children affected by cancer.
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Learn more about the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine at cirm.ca.gov. To explore CIRM-funded clinical trials, visit this page on its website.