Five institutions researching pediatric cancer will get $5 million in state funds to help with their work. The grants come from the budget that was signed this summer.
"The money itself is important," said Gov. Mike DeWine in announcing the grants at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus. "But I think it's also important that we say as a state that medical research for children—in this case, medical research for children's cancer, is vitally important. And we all must, whether we're in the private sector or in the public sector, we all must do more to have more money available for that life- saving research."
Over 500 Ohio kids are diagnosed with cancer each year. Richard Wilson, executive director of the Steve and Cindy Rasmussen Institute for Genomic Medicine at Nationwide Children's Hospital, said while 22% of the U.S. population is under 18, less than 4% of the National Institutes of Health budget goes to pediatric research.
"Children are not just little adults. And many of the discoveries that we have made over the past 25 years to understand adult cancers and the impact has been tremendous. But they're not always directly relevant to the detection and understanding of pediatric cancer," Wilson said.
He added: "Many conditions are rare and impact few children. Thus, there's kind of a limited market for the development of new treatment options by pharmaceutical companies. So that's why funding like this is so vital to our patients and to our, our research and our ability to really improve situation for kids who are diagnosed with cancer."
The money will go to Nationwide Children's Hospital, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, the Cleveland Clinic, Dayton Children's Hospital and Maple Tree Cancer Alliance in Cedarville. Gov. Mike DeWine’s hometown.
At Nationwide Children's, two researchers are working on a way to find cancer in kids before it shows itself.
"We're working towards turning a simple blood test into an early warning system, one that can change the lives of children facing an increased risk of developing cancer," said Dr. Samara Potter, a pediatric hematologist-oncologist. "Unfortunately, current screening methods often involve uncomfortable procedures or expensive imaging tests that can be stressful for patients and their families. These imaging tests and procedures are not always covered by insurance, leading some families to delay or even skip those screenings altogether."
She and Dr. Katherine Miller have teamed up to build what the call a cutting-edge test.
"Liquid biopsy is really a simple blood test. It works by looking for tiny pieces of DNA from cancer cells that can circulate in the bloodstream. This can signal the presence of cancer before symptoms even appear," said Miller, the director of genomic services and principal investigator at the Institute for Genomic Medicine at Nationwide Children's. "With this funding, we will use liquid biopsy in more than 1,000 children and compare how it performs against our traditional screening methods."
Ohio ranks second behind Texas and ahead of California in the number of dedicated pediatric beds per capita. About 50 children and teens are diagnosed with cancer every day in the United States.
DeWine made the announcement at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus on Thursday. He ll stop at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the Cleveland Clinic on Friday.
