Cleveland Clinic Children’s will receive about $1.5 million to create a new, targeted RNA-based vaccine to fight two rare but aggressive childhood cancers: Ewing sarcoma and desmoplastic small round cell tumors.
The money is part of a $5 million statewide investment in pediatric cancer research that Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced on Friday at the Clinic.
The grant is allocated out of next year’s state budget and will be split between five medical centers and used for research studies that aim to improve the detection and treatment of cancer in children.
DeWine said he’s long been committed to increasing funding for research and treatment for children’s illnesses, which he said are underfunded compared to adults.
“It used to be that you only had a survival rate on average of 20% of children who came down with cancer. Today that number is 80%,” said DeWine. “It's a huge change and this is what medical research has done. We want to continue to make that progress.”
The goal is to give children and young adults treatments that are more precise and cause fewer side effects, according to a press release from the governor’s office.
Dr. Tim Chen, with the Clinic, said government support of this type of research is critical, given that there are few economic incentives to study treatments rare cancers in children.
“We are living in what is perhaps a revolutionary time (for progress in immunotherapy) that's not going to come around maybe for another generation,” he said. “Unfortunately, rare tumors and pediatric tumors continue to be not funded as much as the need would imply.”
Aside from the Clinic's $1.5 million, funds will also go to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Dayton Children’s Hospital, Dayton’s Maple Tree Cancer Alliance and the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus.
