Although treatments for childhood cancer patients are improving, cancer remains the leading cause of death by disease in children. Doctors and researchers are also focused on decreasing the toxicity of these treatments, which can have side effects years after a child finishes treatment.
“The war against childhood cancer is hardly over,” says Kimberly Stegmaier, MD, a pediatric oncologist at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. “We need to do better.”
Stegmaier, who focuses her research on identifying new drug targets and new drugs for leukemia, Ewing sarcoma, and neuroblastoma, recently discussed advances in childhood cancer treatment in a Science, Innovation, and Discovery Talk (SID Talk) at Dana-Farber. During the TED Talk-style presentation, Stegmaier explained some of her research in the treatment of sub-microscopic acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) as well as genetic targets in childhood cancers.
“What you can do in an environment where you have chemists, biologists, and clinicians adjacent and working collaboratively is very powerful,” says Stegmaier. “That’s why I’m here today– we need to cure 100 percent of kids, and we can’t do this alone.”
Watch Stegmaier’s talk below:
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