St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital estimates around 400,000 kids around the world will be diagnosed with cancer this year. In the U.S., research and treatments have helped increase survival rates. 80% of kids live five years or more with treatment, but a lot of work is being done to improve that statistic and find cures for more rare forms of cancer.

“Kids with brain tumors were left behind. Because the treatments are very old, they are from the 80s, believe it or not,” Fernando Goldsztein said.

Fernando’s son, Frederico, was diagnosed with a brain tumor when he was nine years old.  Medulloblastoma is the most common brain tumor in children, but it is still rare. Just five out of one million kids are diagnosed with the disease each year, which has made finding funding for new research difficult.

“Unfortunately, he relapsed,” Fernando said. “I was told by the doctors back then that there was nothing to do to save my son, that I should go back to home and spend time with him.”

In a clinical trial funded by MBI, scientists are programming patients’ white blood cells to seek and destroy tumor cells. The results have been promising, and one participant’s cancer was nearly eliminated.

In a separate study still being tested on mice, scientists at the University of Florida are researching an experimental mRNA-based cancer vaccine. The study could lead to a universal shot that helps jump-start a patient’s immune system when fighting cancer.

Scientists in one MBI-funded clinical trial are programming white blood cells to seek out and destroy cancer cells. (iStock)

100% of the donations given to MBI go to supporting research and clinical trials to help kids like Frederico. Fernando says his son is doing well thanks to much of the new research being done.

“He is an outlier, but we know that this type of tumor comes back, so it’s running against time. And that’s why we are moving fast to save him and to save thousands of other kids out there,” Fernando said.

You can learn more or donate to the Medulloblastoma Initiative at https://mbinitiative.org/.