Curing Kids’ Cancer Announces 2008 Pediatric Cancer Research Grants

ATLANTA, GA--(Marketwire - February 04, 2009) -

Curing Kids’ Cancer today awarded the annual Killian Owen Research Grant to the Aflac Cancer Center and Blood Disorders Service of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

$80,000 was donated to the Aflac Cancer Center’s Clinical Research office in memory of Killian Owen, who lost his battle with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in 2003 at the age of nine after a four year battle with the disease. Killian is the inspiration for the charity Curing Kids’ Cancer.

“It is virtually impossible to explain how valuable Curing Kids’ Cancer is to the children of Atlanta and the surrounding southeastern region,” states Dr. William G. Woods, Director of the Aflac Cancer Center and Blood Disorders Service of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. “Philanthropic entities like Curing Kids’ Cancer make it possible for our staff of physicians and nurses to fight pediatric cancer and get kids back to being kids.”

The donation was the third made to the hospital in 2008. Curing Kids’ Cancer donated a total of $200,000 to the Aflac Cancer Center of Children’s last year.

“The Aflac Cancer Center of Children’s pediatric cancer research programs have expanded rapidly in recent years, and the hospital is making great strides in moving treatments from the lab to the bedside,” said Grainne Owen, founder of Curing Kids’ Cancer. “We hope our funding will help create more effective, less toxic treatments which will eventually replace traditional chemotherapy and turn childhood cancer from a killer disease into a curable one.”

A $10,000 grant was awarded to a Dana-Farber Cancer Institute study which identifies and validates new Acute Myeloid Leukemia “targets,” or certain molecules within the cancer that can be attacked with drugs. The studies are being led by Dr. Kimberly Stegmaier and Dr. Scott Armstrong. The grant was made possible by friends and family of Ashley Anderson, a nine-year-old girl from Alpharetta, Ga. who lost her battle with AML in 2006.

A grant was also made to Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Cancer Center to support Dr. Jason Shohet’s research towards developing novel treatments for neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is a disease in which malignant cancer cells form in nerve tissue of the adrenal gland, neck, chest, or spinal cord. Neuroblastoma most often begins during early childhood, usually in children younger than 5 years old. The average five-year survival rate for children with neuroblastoma is 30 percent. This is the second grant Curing Kids’ Cancer has awarded to Dr. Shohet’s research team.

Other recipients include:

Levine Children’s Hospital, Charlotte, N.C. Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital, Columbia, S.C. 

Curing Kids’ Cancer provided a total of $225,000 in research funding in 2008.

Curing Kids’ Cancer has two national grassroots fundraising programs -- Coaches Curing Kids’ Cancer and Teachers Curing Kids’ Cancer. Both programs urge parents and children to donate money to pediatric cancer research in the name of their coach or teacher rather than buying them traditional gifts. Details of the programs are available at www.curingkidscancer.org.

The Killian Owen Research Grant is awarded annually to fund promising research for childhood cancer, in particular to help make cutting edge drugs/treatments available throughout a network of hospitals with programs in pediatric cancer. Killian, who died from leukemia in 2003 at age nine, inspired his parents -- Clay and Grainne Owen -- to found the charity Curing Kids’ Cancer.

About Curing Kids’ Cancer

Inspired by nine-year-old Killian Owen’s battle with leukemia, Curing Kids’ Cancer Inc. is a unique, national grassroots movement which aims to raise both awareness and money to find cures for all types of childhood cancer. Our programs fund the development of cutting edge therapies which will revolutionize childhood cancer treatment by replacing traditional chemotherapy. Our objective is to turn this killer disease into a curable one in our lifetime. Details are available at www.curingkidscancer.org.