CureSearch Research Funding Drives
New Brain Cancer Treatments

Brain cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in children and accounts for nearly 20% of childhood cancer diagnoses, yet treatments have remained relatively unchanged over the past 30 years. Our research strategy is laser focused on addressing this type of unmet need and ensuring that new treatments move quickly into clinical trials to improve outcomes for children, both now and in the future.

This Brain Tumor Awareness Month, we want to share exciting updates on two CureSearch-funded research projects that are making significant inroads in the development of promising new treatments for pediatric brain tumors.

Richard J. Gilbertson, MD, PhD
Cambridge University

Dr. Gilbertson received a CureSearch Acceleration Initiative Award which funded his project to discover and develop new therapies for high-risk pediatric brain cancers including medulloblastoma, ependymoma and choroid plexus carcinoma. New and existing drugs were tested for these specific diseases, and Dr. Gilbertson identified several promising therapies to guide immediate clinical testing.

Results of this project contributed to the launch of a phase 1 clinical trial testing combination therapies for malignant brain tumors. Dr. Gilbertson’s research directly impacts patients with recurrent, refractory medulloblastoma. The trial, sponsored by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, opened in March 2019.

Learn more about Dr. Gilbertson’s project here.

Ranjit Bindra, MD, PhD
Yale Cancer Center

Supported by a CureSearch Catapult Award, Dr. Bindra and his team are conducting a phase 1 clinical trial testing a new treatment for pediatric glioma, an aggressive brain cancer with a 5-year survival rate of less than 25 percent. This drug will make the cancer more sensitive to chemotherapy, allowing the patient to receive lower doses. If successful, Dr. Bindra’s trial will lead to a far-less-toxic standard of treatment, reducing lifelong damaging side effects for patients and increasing the overall survival rate.

The trial opened in 2019 with the first patient enrolled in early May at the University of California, San Francisco. Up to 17 additional trial sites will open across the country, providing current patients with access to this potential new treatment.

Learn more about Dr. Bindra’s project here.

———–

A resource for families and caregivers, our website contains a wealth of information about brain tumors in children, including types of brain tumors, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and life after treatment. Learn more by clicking here.

CureSearch is committed to driving the strongest research and delivering treatments to children, faster. Get involved or give today so children can live longer, healthier lives tomorrow.

The post CureSearch Research Funding Drives New Brain Cancer Treatments appeared first on CureSearch for Children's Cancer.

Reports from America are suggesting that more civil lawsuits alleging a popular drug, made by Sanofi, caused hair loss, are building up as the case develops. We take a closer look.

Sanofi

This Paris-based pharmaceutical firm is the world’s fifth largest by prescription sales. Formed in 2004 with the merger of Aventis and Sanofi-Synthelabo, each themselves the products of a series of previous mergers. Through a subsidiary, Sanofi Pasteur, they are the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines. 

Developed in the 1980s, Taxotere, as it would later be marketed, won its first patent back in 1986, It had been developed as a chemotherapy medication and was shown to disrupt the normal cell division functions. Since 2010 has been available as a generic medication. 

As a drug treatment for people suffering from cancer, there was tolerance towards side effects that might not have been there for drugs designed to work on non-life threatening conditions. Pregnancy is a possible contraindication for use, where some studies have identified a possible issue more research is required to determine whether it is safe for pregnant women. There are other issues around how it interacts with other drugs along with a list of possible side effects. Like other chemotherapy drugs, Taxotere targets dividing cells, which means it will attack bone marrow, hair follicles, and germ cells. 

Trouble With Taxotere

The problem of permanent hair loss has not been acknowledged by the manufacturer as an issue they recognise. This may be in part due to the list of recognised side effects, many of which are serious. But it came as a shock to many patients. A rapidly growing number of these patients are now involved in lawsuits against Sanofi based on the fact that they were not warned that their alopecia could be permanent. 

Hair loss was listed as a side effect as far back as 1986, when the application first went into the FDA for approval. It was only in 2015 that the warning label was updated to say that there had been reports of permanent alopecia following use, although at an unknown frequency. 

HIS Hair Clinic

The change in labelling reflects the new-found problem but obviously came too late for thousands and thousands of patients. Some of whom have been left in a sad emotional state and struggling to cope, as one attorney, Mark O’Mara, working on the case said: “You’ve already been through cancer and survived, why is this drug company making you go through an additional victimizing?” He claims that the federal case will show that the company had results of European studies which evidenced the problem long before the warnings were added to US labels. 

If you would like to discuss your hair loss situation with one of our team of friendly experts, simply complete our contact form on this page or click here to find your nearest clinic.   

Everyone seems to be swept away by the wave of this latest dietary fad-the ketogenic diet. Although it has been used since as early as 1921, it seems to have surged in popularity quite recently. The benefits of keto diet have been advocated by many celebrities. The ketogenic diet was first coined by Russell Wilder. […]

The post All About the Keto Diet, How It Works and Should You Try appeared first on Top 10 Home Remedies.

Pain, whether sensory or emotional, is an unpleasant or discomforting experience that is generally associated with potential or actual tissue damage.[1] Perhaps one of the most common musculoskeletal complaints that afflict a majority of us from time to time is neck pain. In some cases, this disorder can acquire a more chronic form, which can […]

The post Acupressure for Neck Pain: 4 Points to Try, Why It Works, and More appeared first on Top 10 Home Remedies.

The popularity of the hashtag #ketohairloss, full of hair loss horror stories, has prompted many to worry that the diet might be a causal link to their own hair loss. We look closer.

The Ketogenic Diet

Like the Atkins diet before it, the Keto diet promotes removing carbohydrates from your diet. In the case of Keto, it replaces those carbs with fat. By drastically reducing your carb intake, the theory is that it puts your body into a state called ketosis. After as little as two days without enough carbs, most people will go into ketosis/lipolysis. 

Among the effects of ketosis are a couple of noticeable, if minor, negatives. Bad breath and short-term fatigue, as well as short-term decreases in performance, are all associated with ketosis. The notable impacts are on appetite suppression, which is of course why it has become popular. 

Keto and Hair Loss

Hair loss on the keto diet is certainly a possibility. Looking at the constituents of the recommended diet, high in fat with limited protein, there is no reason to suspect that it might cause hair loss directly. Within the confines of the diet, there is plenty of scope to make sure you are getting enough to remain healthy. The problem is more likely to be associated with the sharp reduction in calories the diet leads to. Without adequate protein, you simply do not have the basic building blocks with which to produce hair. But without adequate calories, your body can trigger an energy saving response, which might well include starving fast-growing cells, like hair, of required nutrients. 

HIS Hair Clinic

It might be that simply switching to the keto diet is putting enough stress on our body’s systems to trigger a negative reaction that becomes visible in the condition of our hair (and nails come to that). 

If you are suffering from hair loss that you think might be associated with your diet, the first step should be to seek professional help. Getting an evaluation and accurate diagnosis might well save you from treating a problem that you do not have… by identifying some other underlying medical condition that is really causing the hair loss.

If you would like to discuss your hair loss situation with one of our team of friendly experts, simply complete our contact form on this page or click here to find your nearest clinic.   

An American survey has shed some light on how suffering from hair loss can make us feel and the effects it has on our day to day lives. We look closer.

Good Housekeeping Guide

It sounds as though it might have spawned in the fifties, part of the Stepford Wives type aspirational lifestyle choices that people were making in the aftermath of the global conflict that was world war 2. In fact, Good Housekeeping has been around for well over a century and performs an important job for its followers. It provides reliable information on safe and beneficial products that Americans have grown to trust.

Surveys in the Good Housekeeping Guide are not your typical magazine survey. There is no hidden agenda seeking to promote a particular product. So it was with great interest we read the findings of their study into how we feel about hair loss. Here we share the principal findings. 

Hair Loss Survey Results

The first stat to attract our attention was the one that said 82% of respondents suffered from thinning hair. Which means that nearly one in five did not. Presumably, they were prompted to complete the survey through anxiety that it might be in their near future. 

Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they found losing hair “upsetting” or “awkward.” Just how upsetting and awkward is highlighted by the fact that 27% admitted they do not talk about it at all.

Nearly everyone, 94%, said their confidence had taken a knock, which again strikes us as an understatement… borne out by the fact that almost 70% said it had stopped them having their picture taken. Over half, 56%, said it had stopped them living a full life. 

Outcomes

The fact is that among these respondents will be a few for whom the problem is not hereditary. For them, a trip to a hair professional can help identify the trigger, which may be stress or an underlying health condition, and address the problem. For the majority, the problem will be standard pattern hair loss, of the type we inherit from both parents. For them, there is a full spectrum of solutions and treatments available, from medication like minoxidil to PRP and laser therapy. 

HIS Hair Clinic

A survey that looked purely at how hair loss makes us feel is an unusual event. One that was conducted by such a reputable publication with no agenda beyond an improved understanding is rare indeed. Our thanks to the Good Housekeeping Guide… if you would like to see their original article please click here. 

If you would like to discuss your hair loss situation with one of our team of friendly experts, simply complete our contact form on this page or click here to find your nearest clinic.   

Cluster headaches are a rare form of headaches that are marked by a debilitating one-sided pain. Cluster headaches derive their name from their occurrence in groups (clusters). They are also known as “suicide headaches,” owing to their reputation of rendering the suffering individual drained and exhausted after an attack. Cluster headaches involve the trigeminal nerve […]

The post Cluster Headache Relief: Tips and Remedies to Feel Better appeared first on Top 10 Home Remedies.

Author David Thomas is chronicling his gender transition in the British press. He has described his journey to hair transplant surgery as frightening. Definitely worth a closer look.

David Thomas 

David is not a typical candidate for gender transition, even if there is such a thing. The football team he supports hail from the gritty East End of London and he is a 60-year-old father-of-three with a “fabulously blokey” record collection. But when David reached his fifties he took the decision to go through with gender transition to become a woman. He also decided to share his story, and the details of his journey through the transition, with readers from the UK paper, The Telegraph. 

Journey To Hair Transplant

David tells his readers that he never expected to go bald. His father still has all his at 85 and his father before him died with all his. Until the age of 34, he had thick, floppy dark hair. At that point, a relative told him quite casually that he had a bald spot on his crown. David simply didn’t believe her and it would be another 2 years before he would see it for himself.

By his late thirties, David had grown to hate his bald patch. He describes the turmoil of still being in denial about his sexuality but realizing a bald patch would be a block to any plans to alter his gender and make a convincing woman. He was commissioned by a magazine to research his options for a cure. During the course of that project he spoke a range of providers from across the hair loss industry, including he tells us “purveyors of brown spray-paint.” At the private practice of the man would become his transplant surgeon, David discovered the availability of minoxidil and finasteride, which he credits with staving off the progression of his balding for several years. 

Ultimately, he decided the decision to make the gender reassignment would mean, in his case, a trip to the hair transplant surgeon. A prospect he found terrifying. Nevertheless, he booked himself in and paid his deposit. Only to cancel in the run up to the appointment. Fears about the surgery itself, his father had nearly died during a routine operation, and more about “terrible visions of a head covered in random tufts” were enough for him to write off the £500 deposit. 

Treatment

So it would be another two years before David would summon the courage to book again. Finally, going through with the surgery and on to the next terrifying stage, the lengthy, almost glacial recovery. The shock of seeing the newly transplanted hairs fall out, despite having been warned this was a normal part of the process, was a challenge. As was the frustration with the slow nature of waiting to see the results of pretty much any hair loss treatment… with Scalp Micropigmentation a notable exception.

HIS Hair Clinic

David’s story is fascinating and well-told. The unique challenges of gender transition are laid out and the hair loss aspect is one not many of us would spend too much time thinking about. But short of committing to a life of wigs or hair systems, there would seem to be little alternative to the transplant for a newly reassigned woman wanting to hide a bald patch.

If you would like to discuss your hair loss situation with one of our team of friendly experts, simply complete our contact form on this page or click here to find your nearest clinic.   

“Before Emily” and “After Emily” – A Mother’s Story

By Amy McKelvey

Amy McKelvey is a mother, CureSearch supporter and childhood cancer advocate. Her daughter, Emily, died just five months after her diagnosis of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), on December 20, 2009 at age 17.

Before…

My life now seems to be defined by “before Emily was ill” and “after Emily was gone.” It’s the measure of time whenever I think back on events, celebrations, memories, etc. Before her diagnosis, we were a typical, ordinary family of six. A second marriage for my husband Mark and me, we each brought two children to our blended family – Mark’s sons Caleb and Zach, and my two, Emily and Brendan. We were all happily busy with “life.” Emily cheered for her high school. Zach and Brendan were both involved with baseball and Caleb was away at college.

Emily was a counselor at a summer camp two weeks prior to her diagnosis. One week out of the year, the regular camp closes and during that week, the camp opens for children who have (or have had) cancer and their siblings. Normally, the special camp is staffed by its own counselors, physicians and volunteers, but that year, Emily wanted to stay and help. Emily called me and told me that she wasn’t sure why, but she really felt like she was supposed to be there. At the end of the conversation, she said “Oh, and by the way, my throat is REALLY sore, and my tonsils seem swollen.”

When Emily returned home the following Friday, I took her to Urgent Care. The physician examined her and suspected that she had mono. Throughout the next week, she was tired and had such low energy that we ended up taking her to a physician while we were at the beach, and ultimately cut our vacation short and returned home to seek additional medical care. We walked into our physician’s office and an hour later we were told, “I’m sorry, but you have leukemia.” We were devastated and shocked as she had had a complete physical just months before and it was text-book perfect.

Facing Treatment as a Family

Emily began treatment the Friday after her diagnosis. She endured three rounds of aggressive chemotherapy and was hospitalized the entire five months. I took a leave of absence from my job and literally moved into the hospital with her, staying by her side night and day. I was virtually absent from Brendan’s life while Emily was in treatment. She was so vulnerable and subject to infection that visits from family and friends had to be carefully monitored. It was a very difficult time for all of us. We just all kept believing that Emily would pull through this and our family would return to the “before Emily was ill” timeline that so defines each of us today.

Sadly, Emily passed away on December 20, 2009. Just five months after her diagnosis, Emily was gone. The chemotherapy given to her to wipe out her cells to prepare for a bone marrow transplant caused irreversible liver damage and failure; there was nothing further that could be done.

After…

Before Emily’s diagnosis I would hear of parents who had lost a child and I would think that I could NEVER survive the loss of one of my children. But you do. And you do it through the grace that is given by God and faith and by unconditional love from family and friends. Even today, 10 years later, there are times when I am in complete and total shock that Emily is gone. It hits me at the obvious times like holidays and birthdays, but it also hits me hard at the odd times. Small things can trigger it-a memory, seeing a mother with her daughter shopping, a song on the radio, a favorite movie. I have also been blessed with some very vivid dreams that are so real and reassuring that I am convinced they are Emily’s way of letting me know that she is truly okay. While I know that she is where she needs absolutely nothing from me, I just miss being her Mom.

Now, I am busy with work and our children are grown. Mark and I are empty nesters. Brendan is almost 23 and just finished up college. Mark’s boys, Caleb and Zach, are doing well. Because of our experience, we all have a greater understanding of what is important in life and we don’t spend a lot of time worried about the things that don’t matter. We appreciate life and all of the blessings that we are given. It’s what Emily would want us to do.

As mothers, our instinct and duty is to “fix” things, to make them right. No matter how much I wanted to fix Emily, I couldn’t. Our job is to love our children, unconditionally and without fail. I know that I did that beyond a shadow of a doubt. But I couldn’t fix this. If your child is undergoing treatment now, know that you are not alone. Reach out to others for comfort and if someone offers to help, let them. This is a time when you can’t do it all, and people who care about you want to help.

Taking Action & Honoring Emily

In 2009, while Emily was going through treatment, her cheerleading squad participated in the local CureSearch Walk. That was the first time I became aware of CureSearch for Children’s Cancer. Our friends and family participated for the next couple of years and then, in 2011, I heard about the CureSearch Ultimate Hike. I completed my first hike in 2012. I was “all in” but never dreamed that I would become a repeat hiker and an advocate to promote the Ultimate Hike program and CureSearch. The people that I have met over the years were surely put in my path for a reason. I truly feel this is my calling and my way of giving back to those who may find themselves in my shoes.

I think most parents in this situation are desperate to do something profound to honor their children and carry on their legacy – to share their story, make something good out of something as devastating as losing their child. I know Emily would want me to do all of the things I am doing to make a difference in the pediatric cancer world. It allows me to share her story and to tell the world what an awesome young woman she was. I feel her pushing me to do the things that I do. Even in her absence from this earth, she’s still working her magic.

For 30 years, CureSearch for Children’s Cancer has worked tirelessly to accelerate the development of new, less-toxic children’s cancer treatments, including treatments for the cancer that took Emily’s life – Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). Learn more about the progress we are making thanks to the support of volunteers and advocates like Amy McKelvey.

The post “Before Emily” and “After Emily” – A Mother’s Story appeared first on CureSearch for Children's Cancer.

The pegan diet is an eclectic eating plan that includes the healthiest elements of both the paleo diet and veganism. With the world becoming increasingly health conscious, people are willing to try out all sorts of different diets. Healthy and clean eating is considered no less than an art form, and paleo and vegan diets […]

The post Pegan Diet 101: What to Eat and What to Avoid appeared first on Top 10 Home Remedies.