Cancer MoonShot 2020 Pediatrics Consortium

Diagnosis
Cancer MoonShot 2020 Pediatrics Consortium Members:

H. Stacy Nicholson, MD, Phoenix Children’s Hospital: “The Cancer MoonShot 2020 Pediatric Consortium has an enormous potential to change how we diagnose and treat children suffering from cancer. I’m personally excited about Phoenix Children's leadership of this effort through the Chan Soon-Shiong Children’s Precision Medicine Institute at Phoenix Children’s and are honored to have led the initiative with Dr. Soon-Shiong to establish this consortium.”

Leonard S. Sender, MD, Children’s Hospital of Orange County: “The Pediatric Cancer MoonShot 2020 is so visionary and, at the same time, has the capacity to disrupt the cancer healthcare industrial complex. The cancer moonshot will attempt to cure all the numerous types of pediatric cancers with the least toxicity by harnessing the patients’ own immune systems and using the tumors’ unique genomic mutations to create individualized cancer vaccines. Our Center has studied the value of whole genome sequencing for several years and have recognized the enormous value in such a test to assist in clinical decision-making. Now with the availability of the next evolution of molecular diagnostics from the genome to the proteome we are excited by the acceleration of knowledge that this system will provide and are honored to be a founding member of such an important initiative.”

Douglas K. Graham, MD, PhD, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta: “The Pediatric Cancer Moonshot will give us genomic and proteomic tools to provide deeper insight into the biology of pediatric cancers. We are also particularly excited about the potential to engage the immune system in offering new hopes for curative therapy for patients with the highest risk cancers.”

Stewart Goldman, MD, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and a member of the Executive Committee of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center: “We are honored and excited to participate in the Moon Shot project,” said Stewart Goldman, MD, Head of the Division of Hematology/Oncology/Neuro-Oncology & Stem Cell Transplantation at Lurie Children’s. “This unprecedented collaboration is truly an opportunity to make transformational change quickly by developing effective immunotherapy treatments for the care and cure of children with cancer.”

Giannoula Klement, MD, Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center - Tufts University School of Medicine: “This is the most exciting time in oncology. For the first time in many decades, we have the tools and understanding to abandon the old paradigm of killing cancer and develop more individualized, rational, and much less toxic approaches.”

Linda M. McAllister-Lucas, MD, PhD, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC: "Less than one percent of cancers in the USA occur in pediatric patients. And yet, the loss of years and quality of life to pediatric cancer is huge. The Pediatric Cancer Moonshot 2020 will pour resources into research investigating the cause, the diagnosis and the treatment of pediatric cancers. This Moonshot will start a new era of hope for our patients and their families, and will lead the way toward more effective less toxic treatments, and higher quality longer lives for children with cancer."

Sam Milanovich, MD, Sanford Health: “The National Cancer Moonshot presents a unique opportunity to begin to fundamentally change the way we treat childhood cancer. Sanford Health looks forward to working together with our pediatric oncology colleagues across the country to develop exciting, novel approaches to improve childhood cancer treatment.”

Joshua D. Schiffman, MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Investigator, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah and Intermountain Primary Children's Hospital: “This effort offers a unique and timely opportunity to harness the power of genomic translation to eventually help the nearly 16,000 children diagnosed with cancer each year in the United States. We are very pleased that Utah and its children can contribute to this initiative.”

Phillip B. Storm, MD, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia: “We are delighted to participate in this cancer moonshot coalition. We have been invited to lead glioblastoma and the brain tumor working group in this coalition. We already have underway a network of pediatric cancer centers involved in genomic and proteomics research and being part of the Cancer MoonShot 2020 will help accelerate this goal to find treatments.”

Daniel S. Wechsler, MD, PhD, Duke Department of Pediatrics – Duke University School of Medicine: “I am excited to learn more about this extraordinary initiative to enhance cure rates among pediatric cancer patients. Recent advances in immunotherapy have set the stage for the National Immunotherapy Coalition to make tremendous inroads.”

About the Cancer MoonShot 2020 Pediatrics Consortium:
The Cancer MoonShot 2020 Pediatrics Consortium, founded by ten initiating members, will bring the promise of immunotherapy as the next-generation standard of cancer care to children diagnosed with the disease. The consortium will seek to apply the most comprehensive diagnostic testing available—whole genomic and proteomic analysis—and leverage proven and promising combination immunotherapies and clinical trials under the QUILT Program within the Cancer MoonShot 2020 mission. Real-time outcomes data will be shared to establish a National Pediatrics Cancer Learning System to accelerate the next generation of care for all.

About Cancer MoonShot 2020
Cancer MoonShot 2020 is the nation's most comprehensive cancer collaborative initiative seeking to accelerate the potential of combination immunotherapy as the next-generation standard of care in cancer patients. This initiative aims to explore a new paradigm in cancer care by initiating randomized Phase II trials in patients at all stages of disease in 20 tumor types in 20,000 patients within the next 36 months. These findings will inform Phase III trials and the aspirational moonshot to develop an effective vaccine-based immunotherapy to combat cancer by 2020. For more information, please visit http://www.CancerMoonShot2020.org