WELCOME

On behalf of the faculty, staff, and students of the Nemours Center for Childhood Cancer Research, Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, I am pleased to welcome you all to our website. I wanted to briefly tell you about the cancer center and our goals to support children with cancer.

The Nemours Center for Childhood Cancer Research (NCCCR) at Alfred I. duPont Hospital for children is a new research facility of Nemours Biomedical Research and was established in January 2008. This is a fully renovated laboratory facility located at 1701, Rockland Road in Wilmington, DE. This facility has space for 50 researchers and the prospects to evolve into an excellent cancer research facility within the state of Delaware.

The logo of the NCCCR symbolizes our philosophy. The adult and child hands together show our commitment to support children. The yellow circle around hands represents the family. Cancer in the family dramatically affects children’s behavior and development. At NCCCR, we aim to support children and families with cancer.

The immediate goal of the NCCCR is to integrate the basic and clinical cancer research facilities at the Nemours centers in Wilmington, Delaware, and in Jacksonville, Orlando, and Pensacola, Florida, to build a larger cancer research facility focused on childhood cancer.

Our mission is to establish a National Cancer Institute-recognized cancer center at Nemours where basic research will closely complement clinical research in childhood cancers and to develop novel strategies for cancer awareness, cancer diagnosis, and cancer treatment focused on children. Our vision is to become one of the nation’s leading cancer research centers for diagnosis and treatment of childhood cancers.

The NCCCR will recruit talented researchers doing basic cancer research with a translational focus. The primary focus of the NCCCR will be on childhood cancers as well as adult cancers that have major impact on families. By integrating studies on cancer in both children and adults, we will maximize our ability to translate new discoveries into novel treatments for childhood cancers. The goal of our basic research studies is to develop biomarkers for diagnosis and novel drugs for the treatment and cure of childhood cancers. The NCCCR will be actively involved in all aspects of cancer research, professional education, and community involvement that are needed to enhance cancer outcomes for children.

The NCCCR will be equipped with state-of-the-art technology and equipment needed for cell biology, genetic engineering, in vivo imaging, biomarkers and drug discovery. A tumor and serum bank will be established at the NCCCR to facilitate research focused on validation of biomarkers for childhood cancers.

The NCCCR will also be involved in graduate and undergraduate education and students from University of Delaware and other colleges will have the opportunity to receive advanced training in cancer cell biology from center faculty. Also, the NCCCR will host several educational symposia on cancer awareness and education in the state of Delaware.

Each and every family has someone affected by cancer. But when cancer strikes an innocent child, the emotional stress is unlimited. Unfortunately, funding for childhood cancer research is only a small fraction of the money spent on cancer research.

Four to five decades ago, the survival rate for childhood cancer was only about 40%. Now, 80% of childhood cancers can be cured. With concerted efforts toward translational research, we could achieve a 100% cure rate in the future. The cure rate for childhood leukemia the most common cancer among children dramatically improved from 40% to 80% from 1960 to 2004. However, the improvements in the last 4 years have been minimal. It warrants that the current approaches are at their maximum benefit in treating children with cancer, and new approaches are needed to further improve the cure rate. We need new drugs with much more potency to treat childhood cancer. Without these new drugs, we might not be able to increase the cure rate beyond 80%. While an 80% cure rate sounds like a significant achievement, most of the children treated for cancer suffer neurological and other developmental side effects that linger throughout their entire lives. This is primarily because drugs used to treat children are not designed specifically for children. We need to design drugs to treat childhood cancers specifically to minimize these side effects. In addition to the cure rate, research focusing on minimizing side effects should be given equal importance when designing and developing new drugs for treatment of childhood cancers. Research is the key for early diagnosis, better treatment, and to finding cure for childhood cancers. We need your philanthropic support to accomplish our goals soon.

The best part of my position is the opportunity to help and support children with cancer by establishing a strong cancer research center at Nemours. I hope you will join hands with our efforts to eradicate childhood cancers and support our mission to help children and families with cancer.

As you know, this website is new, and it will continue to grow to embellish our accomplishments and support to children in the future.

Again, I am pleased to welcome you all to this website.

~ Ayyappan K. Rajasekaran, Ph.D.
Director, NCCCR