Great things that happened in New York to make a difference for Wilms tumor. Elevate Wilms members, including  Miriam Weiss, MD, Courtney Comer, MTS, BSN, RN and Robyn Spoon, Elevate Founder and CEO,  attended the 12th International Pediatric Renal Tumors Biology Meeting for three straight days of networking and learning.  

 

  

 Want to hear more?

 

Robyn Spoon, Elevate CEO will share a snapshot of what happened over these 3 days…

UPDATES!

   1)  We received the most updated information regarding the release of the next COG clinical trial information for those diagnosed with Wilms tumor from pediatric oncologist Elizabeth Mullens, MD, FAAP of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute of Boston, MA. [HERE] 

 

   2) We received the most updated information regarding the release of the next SIOP trial from Marry van den Heuvel-Eibrink, MD of Prinses Maxima, Netherlands [HERE].

 

   3)  Elevate learned that SIOP and COG are finding some common ground through the HARMONICA collaboration.

This is great news! 

   4) We received updated information regarding the current state of needs from scientists and translational doctors.

Why is this important?

   This will be key to help Elevate identify “pinch points” we wish to address. Our team will be working on this together beginning this Wednesday at the Elevate Wilms workgroup meeting.

 

 

What else happened over those few days? 

 

 Critical relationships were fostered between our organization and leading scientists and translational doctors, which I believe will help us be more effective in accomplishing our mission! Some of those relationships include: Dr. Mike Ortiz of Memorial Sloan Kettering [HERE] -who has offered to connect us with whoever we need, Dr. Andrew Murphy, surgeon at St. Jude’s [HERE], Dr. Elizabeth Mullen, Dr. Andrew Hong of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta [HERE], Dr. Jeffrey Dome of Children’s National [HERE], Dr. Marry van den Heuvel-Eibrink and her team, etc. We had the chance to be reacquainted with others, such as Dr. Brian Crompton of Dana Farber [HERE], Dr. Filemon Dela Cruz of Memorial Sloan Kettering [HERE], and Dr. Jack Brzezinski of Toronto Sick Kids [HERE]- Elevate Wilms was thrilled to meet him face to face at this event after our introductions a few months ago.

 

    I was excited to have the opportunity to spend a lot of quality time with Dr. Martha Donaghue of the FDA [HERE], whom I had previously met at ACCELERATE in February. She is a wonderful advocate for “advocacy” and was impressed with our “model” for engagement [Stay tuned for more on this in future blogs]. Along with Martha, I enjoyed learning more from Nita Seibel from the NCI [HERE]. Both of them will be wonderful people to have in Elevate’s realm as they are willing to provide training opportunities and speak at events, and more! 

 

    One of the most exciting parts of the symposium for me was the introduction to early career scholars within Wilms, I feel these individuals are the “future”. They are identifying potential targets for targeted opportunities and working on developmental biology that may unlock the clues for a brighter future for this disease.

 

 

   I also felt grateful to be welcomed and empowered by speaking on behalf of advocacy during the Discovery of Improved Wilms Tumor Therapeutic Targets and Approaches breakout session. I assured all of those in attendance (packed room that sat 105), that we are ready to help break down barriers, raise funds, and advocate as needed for these new therapies. 

 

   An additional surprise was an introduction to the new science director, Salvatore La Rosa, PhD, for the Kidney Cancer Association [HERE]. We are working on setting up a time for a short chat. At some point, it may be interesting for him to join one of our Elevate Wilms workgroup meetings. He seems very motivated to support pediatric kidney cancers…keep in mind:  he used to advocate for peds through the national tumor foundation.