Nearly 90 percent of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) survive, yet the same treatments that save their life can adversely affect their quality of life and cardiorespiratory fitness health. In fact, the cardiorespiratory fitness of ALL survivors can be significantly worse than a sample of healthy Canadians, despite similar levels of physical activity. Read more: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-05-recovery-hard-survivors-childhood-acute.html

In 2012, a pair of neurosurgery residents traded their scrubs for lab coats in an effort to understand, at the most basic level, what causes medulloblastoma, the most common pediatric brain cancer. Read more: http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2019/05/brain-surgeons-turn-to-basic-science-to-fight-childhood-brain-cancer.html

A new type of drug that targets a genetic weakness in an untreatable childhood brain cancer could become the first ever treatment designed to target the disease. Read more: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-05/iocr-ntc050819.php

Malignant rhabdoid tumor (MRT) is one of the most aggressive and lethal childhood cancers [...] Now researchers at Vanderbilt University have discovered that a pro-cancer protein, MYC, is normally inhibited by SNF5. Loss of SNF5 effectively "takes the brakes off" MYC, thus accelerating cancerous growth. Read more: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-05-lethal-childhood-cancer.html

Brain tumours are the leading cause of non-accidental death in children in Canada, but little is known about when these tumours form or how they develop. Researchers have recently identified the cells that are thought to give rise to certain brain tumours in children and discovered that these cells first appear in the embryonic stage of a mammal's development—far earlier than they had expected. Read more: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-05-unanticipated-early-childhood-br

CAR T-cells are becoming somewhat of a household name, but a new phase I trial is, for the first time, using CAR 'NKT' cells, featuring genetic modification of a different immune cell, natural killer T-cells. Natural killer T-cells have long been known to be important in mediating the immune system's response to cancer, targeting both tumor cells and cells infected with viruses. Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/victoriaforster/2019/05/01/new-experimental-therapy-car-nk

A Waterloo family is struggling to pay for the costs of a six-year-old girl’s cancer supplement that’s no longer covered by the province. Read more: https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/mama-i-ll-be-brave-family-paying-for-girl-s-cancer-supplements-after-ohip-changes-1.4411894#_gus&_gucid=&_gup=twitter&_gsc=wo8R9WV

A group of molecules, which each simultaneously target two of the most common genetic faults behind an aggressive form of childhood cancer, could lead to a potential new drug for the disease, a new study suggests. Read more: https://www.icr.ac.uk/news-archive/two-for-one-molecule-could-target-two-key-drivers-of-aggressive-childhood-cancer