The legacy you’ve created for children with brain tumors Thanks to your generosity, we’re enabling hundreds of thousands of dollars in research all over the world to create less toxic and more effective therapies to treat childhood cancer.
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N 2 0 1 9 , P R E S S O N made a 4-year, $1
million pledge to the Children’s Hospital of Georgia (CHOG). The first $500,000 of that pledge, granted out and completed over 2019 and 2020, was earmarked for the Pediatric Immunotherapy Program (PIP) at Augusta University and CHOG led by Drs. Theodore Johnson and David Munn, pediatric oncologists at Augusta University’s Medical College of Georgia and Georgia Cancer Center. The PIP is designed specifically as a “destination” program to provide highly specialized experimental immunotherapy treatments for children with cancer from around the country who may not have other options for continued therapy. The program is a lab-to-clinic pipeline used to identify existing drugs that have previously unappreciated immunotherapy benefits and repurpose them for treatment of children with recurrent brain tumors or newly diagnosed DIPG, a particularly aggressive pediatric brain tumor currently considered incurable. “Our goal is to ‘Never Say No’ to children in need of critical palliative therapies using a problem-solving, solution-finding approach. Following this vision, the PIP treats children with unique experimental immunotherapy
regimens using what is essentially a concierge model of care delivery that is distinctive among pediatric oncology centers,” Johnson says. Since Press On’s first grant, Drs. Munn and Johnson have completed their phase I trial, started the phase II trial, and expanded that trial to a second location at Emory in Atlanta, all with promising results. “We have found that a number of the children receiving this treatment are demonstrating quality of life improvements, such as returning to school, taking long-delayed vacation trips, engaging in activities they cherish such as hiking and rock climbing, moving into a dormitory at college, attending sporting events, and others. For these children, immunotherapy has made a major impact on their lives.” PIP is giving hope to children with the world’s most aggressive forms of pediatric brain cancer, and the future of the program is promising—their pipeline research has identified new candidate immunotherapy drugs that may have potential synergy with Indoximod, a drug that scientists hypothesize will improve antitumor immune responses and slow the growth of tumors. They have begun negotiations with the
relevant stakeholders for a first-in-children clinical trial using this new immunotherapy in combination with their current protocols. This trial is in development, and they hope to add it to their current innovative portfolio within the next 1-2 years. PIP has shown low to no toxicity for its patients as well. This is an equally groundbreaking outcome as many children lose their life and their future quality of life due to the toxic nature of established chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Thanks to YOU, Press On has completed the first half of our $1 million pledge to the PIP program at CHOG and AU. Press On now turns its attention and yours to fulfilling the remaining $500,000 over 2021 and 2022 which is earmarked to establish a pediatric bone marrow transplantation unit at CHOG. With the hiring of Amir R. Mian, MD, MS, MBA, Professor and Chief Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Department of Pediatrics, Director, Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Program, the timing is perfect. Expect to hear more from us over the coming months about what is going on here. We are ready to Press On to the finish line with your continued support.
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