Assorted News from the Last Week: 

CAC2 Student Member and Rookie-of-the Year Joshua Omale published on the global rise in young-onset cancers and the role of environmental exposures, microbiomes, and data blind spots.

If you are feeling overwhelmed this summer, read CAC2 staffer Bethany Lieberman’s take on the Childhood Cancer Hub and learn about valuable resources to help make your path clearer and lighter.

Discover Hope Over Despair, a new book from CAC2 Member Mariah Forster Olson, and also the our library of books by other CAC2 members.

Missing messenger RNA fragments could be key to new immunotherapy for hard-to-treat brain tumors in children.

Focus on Childhood Cancer Survivorship:

• The hidden costs of cancer for young survivors are derailing their financial futures.
• Childhood cancer survivors face new health problems later in life, study shows.
• Childhood cancer survivorship globally: A systematic review

• Excess health risks linger in childhood cancer survivors into 50s and beyond—Higher mortality, new cancers, more chronic conditions, with radiation therapy a main culprit.

Case report: managing methotrexate neurotoxicity in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia: MRI and treatment outcomes.

Factors Associated With Symptom Burden Among Pediatric Patients With Cancer

Oncology nurses and advanced practice providers (APPs) can help pediatric as well as adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients navigate cancer care by adapting communication and support to the patient’s developmental stage and by fostering a smooth transition to adult services.

Upcoming Webinars, Online Opportunities, and Meetings:

Great Gold Rush Race, a 5K Run/3K walk and family festival with DJ, food, auctions, games, magic show, and new this year cornhole tournament. Registration at 11:00 CT with race start at noon on September 7.  Click here for more information and to register.

The Golden Toast is an annual event held in Washington, D.C., hosted by The Carson Leslie Foundation to celebrate the childhood cancer community and their legislative achievements.  This year’s event will be on Thursday September 18.  Click here for more information and to register.

Austin Hatcher Foundation will hold its18th annual Celebration of Life and Hope on September 20 at 7:00 ET. Click here for more information and to register.

Rocky Mountain Vintage Racing is pleased to announce Race Against Kids’ Cancer (RAKC), which will be at High Plains Raceway where these wonderful cars of all years and vintages are invited to gather to celebrate this class and September 27-28.  Click here for more information and to register.

NCI Office of Data Sharing will host a Data Jamboree that focuses on finding and accessing datasets, building specific pediatric cancer cohorts, and aggregating or linking datasets from various data systems still present tremendous challenges for the wider research and care community, on September 29 and 30, 2025.  Click here for more information and to register.

The National Cancer Institute’s CCDI Symposium is happening this October in person in Bethesda, MD or online! Click here to register.

Past Recordings:

Take Action:

 The Alternatives Research & Development Foundation (ARDF) is excited to announce a new funding opportunity through our Alternatives in Research (AiR) Challenge program: Focus on Childhood Cancer. The Focus on Childhood Cancer program will fund promising proposals that use innovative and human-relevant research methods to address challenging and important research questions related to childhood cancers.
 
Key Information:

• Maximum award per project is $210,000 (up to five awards total)
• LOI Deadline: September 15, 2025
• Projects must specifically focus on childhood cancer and address the program’s dual aims: improving knowledge or treatment of childhood cancer, and demonstrating the value of non-animal approaches in biomedical research
• Eligible applicants must be affiliated with a US-based non-profit, tax-exempt, non-governmental educational or research institution.

The AiR Challenge: Focus on Childhood Cancer program is now accepting LOIs through ARDF’s application portal on Proposal Central. To learn more, visit: https://www.ardf-online.org/air-challenge.html.