Macy Easom Cancer Research Foundation sponsors Hepatoblastoma Lectureship

(reposted from the Macy Eason Cancer Research Foundation release; This Knight Cancer Institute Seminar Series lecture by Dr. Stefano Cairo is Tuesday June 4 in the OHSU Main Hospital Conference room at 4pm.  Public Welcome!)

  

(Perry, GA.) - The Macy Easom Cancer Research Foundation, a nonprofit pediatric cancer foundation headquartered in Perry, Ga., is catalyzing pediatric cancer research this week by bring together world-renowned cancer and stem cell doctors and scientists for the Macy Easom Memorial Lectureship at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Ore.,  on Tuesday, June 5.

The Macy Easom Cancer Research Foundation was established in memory of Macy Easom, a 4-year-old girl diagnosed with hepatoblastoma, a rare form of pediatric liver cancer, who passed away at the age of 5. The foundation’s mission is to provide funding to enable research devoted to finding a cure and treatment for hepatoblastoma and other pediatric cancers while promoting public awareness.

To help reach its mission, the foundation has partnered with Stefano Cairo, Ph.D., a human geneticist at XenTech in Paris, France, as well as Charles Keller, M.D., a nationally accomplished childhood cancer physician-scientist, and Markus Grompe, M.D., an internationally recognized liver biology expert -- both from Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine, OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Papé Family Pediatric Research Institute, and the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute in Portland, Ore.

“Hepatoblastoma is a neglected rare cancer in children, but this liver tumor is among the top eight causes of childhood cancer deaths,” says Dr. Keller. “Scientists studying other pediatric and adult cancers (including hepatocellular carcinomas) are building a foundation of knowledge about potential signaling pathways that may be related to how hepatoblastoma tumors start and progress, but the amount of focused research on hepatoblastoma is limited and a clear plan to tackle this disease is lacking.”

Dr. Keller says the scientific exchange afforded by the lectureship will bring together experts on hepatoblastoma biology, and those with internationally recognized expertise in liver stem cells from which this tumor likely arises. “The Macy Easom Cancer Research Foundation, and its commitment to establishing a basic science laboratory for the study of hepatoblastoma is of vital importance if we are to reverse the trend of mortality in this childhood liver cancer.”

For more information on the Macy Easom Cancer Research Foundation, visit PrincessMacy.org.

The lecture, which begins at 4 p.m. in the OHSU Hospital eighth-floor auditorium, is free and open to the public. For more information, please send an email to collier@ohsu.edu.

  

For the Tuesday June 5 4pm PST LIVE Internet feed for Dr. Cairo's seminar, click here.  

 

 
  

About Macy Easom Cancer Research Foundation

The Macy Easom Cancer Research Foundation in Perry, GA was formed to help find a cure for hepatoblastoma, a form of pediatric liver cancer, as well as other pediatric cancers. Macy Easom was diagnosed with hepatoblastoma at the age of four and passed away at the age of five. Her family has formed the foundation in hopes of partnering with doctors for pediatric cancer research and to eventually bring a pediatric cancer research center to the Southeast. PrincessMacy.org.

ABOUT OHSU DOERNBECHER CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL

OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital ranks among the top children's hospitals in the United States in eight clinical specialties.* It ranks 36th nationally for NIH-awarded pediatric research funding among children's hospitals affiliated with an academic medical center**, and is one of only 22 NIH-designated Child Health Research Centers in the country.

OHSU Doernbecher cares for tens of thousands of children each year from Oregon, southwest Washington and around the nation, resulting in more than 175,000 discharges, surgeries, transports and outpatient visits annually.

Nationally recognized OHSU Doernbecher physicians and nurses provide a full range of pediatric care in the most patient- and family-centered environment. These highly trained clinicians also travel throughout Oregon and southwest Washington, providing specialty care to more than 3,000 children at more than 150 outreach clinics in 15 locations. In addition, OHSU Doernbecher delivers neonatal and pediatric critical care consultation to community hospitals statewide through its state-of-the-art telemedicine network.

* U.S. News Best Children's Hospitals 2011-12
** National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions