Valerie Castle, M.D.
Taking aim at deadly childhood cancer
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While research into childhood cancer has led to dramatically improved survival rates, certain types of cancer are proving to be more difficult problems to solve. Neuroblastoma, which strikes about 650 children each year, is one. Even after extensive treatment, fewer than 15 percent of children with advanced neuroblastoma survive.
But Valerie Castle is taking her research into this devastating childhood disease in new and promising directions, with the help of Taubman Institute funding.
“It’s going to allow us to embark on some very unique and innovative experiments in the lab,” says Castle. “Often, innovative approaches are not well-funded at an early critical stage, making it difficult to take on projects that, albeit with some risk, have very high up-side potential.”
Castle and her team have identified molecules that cause neuroblastoma to form and that make it resistant to current chemotherapies and radiation therapy. They hope to now find ways to pirate these molecules, turning them into weapons that will actually kill the cancerous cells.
“This funding will really allow us to expand upon the studies we’ve started that are in preliminary stages but show great promise to advance ideas on new treatment strategies very, very rapidly,” Castle explains.
Basic discoveries in rare cancers, like neuroblastoma, lead to advances in other cancer areas, says Castle. In fact, her lab’s work has direct implications for breast cancer and ovarian cancer.
Research Findings:
