More grant dollars are going towards cancer research for children in Delaware.
The National Cancer Institute is renewing its funding for the Community Oncology Research Program at Nemours.
The program is receiving $4.7 million spread over the next six years. It has been receiving funding from NCI since 2014.
Dr. Anders Kolb is Director of the Nemours Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders. He says Nemours is pushing to create more targeted immunotherapies and chemotherapies for kids, as the adult drugs can be very toxic for children in the long term.
“The goal of our next era of clinical research in pediatric cancer is to identify therapies that are able to kill cancer cells and spare normal cells,” said Kolb.
Kolb adds the NCI funding has allowed Nemours to put together a clinical research infrastructure and staff that is “outstanding.”
“Clinical research isn’t just a person at the bedside with a clipboard monitoring for side effects,” he said. “Clinical research done well, especially done well in a pediatric setting, is a team of people dedicated to providing the best possible care for these patients and families.”
Nemours officials say there were 189 enrollments in clinical trials at the AI DuPont Hospital for Children in 2018 for 80 eligible patients, putting the hospital in the 94th percentile among the 220 hospitals nationwide in the Children’s Oncology Group.
Kolb says those numbers are expected to increase this year by about 15-20%.
