Working in the community of pediatric cancer brings waves of despair and loss. Losing one child to cancer is one too many. Sadly, this happens every day. Treatments and cures for pediatric cancer have not surpassed the losses. Just last year, CCF lost two vibrant local warriors to brain cancer: Cameron Corno and Vanessa Bishop. Each fought for years to navigate life while living with a brain tumor.
Our commitment remains laser-focused on how research will bring about better outcomes for children facing a diagnosis of cancer. Pediatric cancer research has made incredible advances. The overall percentage of 5-year survival has gone from 63% in the 1970s to 87% in the last ten years*. Unfortunately, these overall numbers do not properly reflect some very poor-prognosis cancers (see AACR chart) or that many treatments come with toxic and devastating side effects- sometimes subjecting the patient to life-long debilitating secondary illnesses or impairments.
Research over the last decade has brought immunotherapy treatments to the forefront of cancer treatment, focusing on enhancing one’s own immune system to destroy cancer cells, leaving healthy ones less impacted than traditional treatments. The National Cancer Institute offers an exhaustive but understandable explanation here: https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/types/immunotherapy Immunotherapy treatments for children are still uncommon as first-line treatment and remain largely available through enrolling in a clinical trial. Yet, clinical trials are only possible due to funding vital research.
The Children’s Cancer Foundation, Inc. has been instrumental on a local level in advancing pediatric cancer research. We recognize our responsibility in ensuring that critical pediatric research remains funded. A CCF research grant is small by comparison to a federal NCI grant. But what a CCF grant provides is an opportunity for a researcher to test a theory, with the goal of becoming a novel treatment for a pediatric cancer(s) and ultimately lead to a clinical trial.
What does the future hold for U.S.-led pediatric cancer research?
In the summer of 2025, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the largest provider of cancer research funding, experienced an unprecedented cut to their budget and lost many staff. By the end of the year, the administration announced that it would eliminate NCI funding for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium (PBTC) this month, March 2026. Established in 1999, the PBTC has conducted phase I and II trials to improve the treatment of primary brain tumors in children. This is devastating news for patients who are currently enrolled in clinical trials.
What do cuts in research mean? For a family whose sick child is a participant in a clinical trial, the trial will end. Some may be kept going through transferring to a different, more general pediatric clinical trial consortium at NCI, but that will take time that families do not have. Millions of dollars in research across the country have, or will be, halted.
The devastating reality of these interruptions was recently explored by Ed Pilkington, Chief Reporter for The Guardian. Mr. Pilkington contacted CCF and several leading local pediatric oncologists to better understand the impact of these interruptions. Eugene Hwang, M.D. of Children’s National Hospital, Division Chief of the Department of Oncology, a member of the neuro-oncology team, and most relevant to this article, the Principal Investigator of the PBTC, where he is the co-chair of the Immunotherapy Working Group addressed the dire outcomes of halting research.
Dr. Hwang presented an overview of neuro-oncology treatment at the CCF Research Symposium in 2021 – https://youtu.be/u5POPS1yzVo. To learn more about the impact of losing PBTC and promising mRNA immunotherapy research, The Guardian article can be found here: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/15/childhood-brain-cancer-trump
A small research grant can make a difference
While recognizing that a CCF grant cannot take the place of a large multi-year grant, we are reminded daily of the importance we make in the local pediatric cancer community. With the goal of raising funds annually to maintain an investment in pediatric cancer research, CCF oversees a Call for Proposals, from which the best of those applications is selected to receive funding. CCF proudly plays a small role in advancing critical pediatric cancer research.
Collaboration, communication, and community.
We need all three pieces to ensure that we provide survivable options for a child learning today that they have cancer. Research is the start, the middle, and the conclusion. It is the only path forward.
This year’s Call for Proposals is open (the deadline is May 3rd). Applications can be downloaded here. Awardees who are currently advancing research with CCF funds can be found here.
*”AACR Pediatric Cancer Progress Report 2025” https://cancerprogressreport.aacr.org/pediatric/pcpr25-contents/pcpr25-pediatric-cancer-trends-in-the-united-states/
