For children with retinoblastoma, better outcomes begin with research. But progress in childhood cancer takes more than a single study or discovery. Researchers need opportunities to pursue promising ideas, clinical trials to move discoveries forward, access to data from enough patients to answer important questions, and a strong community of scientists working together.
That’s where St. Baldrick’s comes in.
For more than 25 years, the St. Baldrick’s Childhood Cancer Research Foundation has funded childhood cancer research with one goal: to give kids with cancer longer, healthier lives. As the largest charity funder of childhood cancer research grants in the U.S., we support research across the pediatric cancer landscape and at many different stages of discovery.
For retinoblastoma, that means helping support progress in several important ways.
Investing in Retinoblastoma Research
St. Baldrick’s has supported research focused specifically on retinoblastoma, giving scientists opportunities to investigate important questions about the disease and pursue discoveries that could ultimately improve how children are treated.
But funding individual research projects is only one piece of moving science forward.
Helping Make Clinical Trials Possible
St. Baldrick’s is the largest philanthropic funder of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), a network of more than 200 children’s hospitals, universities and cancer centers working together to improve treatments and outcomes for children with cancer.
Through this longstanding support, St. Baldrick’s helps provide the research infrastructure that allows institutions to open and conduct childhood cancer clinical trials.
That support has extended to seven COG protocols focused on retinoblastoma, including ARET2121, the currently active retinoblastoma protocol.
For childhood cancers, this kind of collaboration is particularly important. No single institution may see enough patients to answer the biggest research questions on its own. Working together allows researchers to learn from more children and move promising approaches forward.
Bringing Retinoblastoma Data Together
The same challenge exists when it comes to data.
Historically, there have been few cooperative groups collecting data from patients with retinoblastoma. When information exists across different hospitals, countries, clinical trials and registries, researchers can face significant barriers to bringing it together and learning from it.
The Pediatric Cancer Data Commons (PCDC) is helping change that.
St. Baldrick’s provided critical early funding to help establish the PCDC and has invested $2.7 million in its work. The PCDC brings clinical data together in one international platform, giving researchers an opportunity to learn from far more patients than may be possible at a single institution.
That infrastructure now includes an effort dedicated to retinoblastoma: the Global REtinoblastoma Alliance for CHildren, or Global REACH.
Formally established in 2022, Global REACH brings together experts in pediatric oncology, ocular oncology, ophthalmology, pathology, surgery, radiation oncology, genetics and genomics, biostatistics, and other specialties.
The Global REACH data commons will include retrospective and prospective data from electronic health records, clinical trials and registries around the world. By bringing these resources together, researchers can gain greater access to the clinical and biological data needed to advance care and improve outcomes for children with retinoblastoma.
Already, more than 700 patients with retinoblastoma have been identified for inclusion in the Pediatric Cancer Data Commons.
Supporting the People Behind the Progress
Advancing childhood cancer research also means investing in the people who will make the next discoveries.
That’s why St. Baldrick’s funding spans the research career pipeline—from students getting their first experience in a pediatric oncology lab to established investigators pursuing innovative ideas.
Summer Fellow Awards give medical school or college students an opportunity to spend a summer working in a pediatric oncology research lab, providing early exposure that may inspire a career in childhood cancer research.
Fellow Awards provide two to three years of support for new doctors training in childhood cancer research.
Scholar Awards provide three or more years of funding to early-career researchers pursuing promising science, helping talented investigators establish careers in pediatric cancer research.
International Scholar Awards help train researchers from low- and middle-income countries to address childhood cancer research questions relevant to children in their home countries.
And our support continues beyond career development.
Research Grants provide funding for scientists pursuing new discoveries and better treatments for childhood cancers, while Infrastructure Grants help institutions treat more children on clinical trials and provide resources that make additional research possible.
Survivorship and Supportive Care Research Grants support research aimed at improving symptom management during treatment, helping families cope with the challenges of therapy, and addressing the long-term health and quality-of-life issues childhood cancer survivors may face.
St. Baldrick’s also supports bold, collaborative thinking through the Arceci International Innovation Award, created in honor of the late Dr. Robert J. Arceci, a pioneer in pediatric oncology. The award reflects his commitment to creativity, collaboration and supporting early- to mid-career scientists.
Every other year, St. Baldrick’s also partners with the European-based FIGHT KIDS CANCER initiative to offer the FIGHT KIDS CANCER & St. Baldrick’s Foundation Arceci Innovation Award, extending that commitment to innovative childhood cancer research internationally.
Moving Research Forward, Together
For retinoblastoma and other childhood cancers, progress can begin with a young researcher entering a lab for the first time. It can come from an investigator pursuing a promising new idea, a child enrolling in a clinical trial, or researchers on opposite sides of the world finally being able to learn from the same collection of patient data.
St. Baldrick’s helps make each of those paths possible by investing in the people, research, infrastructure and collaborations needed to move childhood cancer research forward.
And none of it happens without people who choose to get involved.
Whether you fundraise, volunteer, donate or find another way to lend your support, you can help fuel the research that gives children with cancer more possibilities for their futures.
