Volume 23 | July 10, 2024

Sarcoma Awareness from Multiple Perspectives

Thank you so much to our osteosarcoma community for showing up in full collaborative force this year at FACTOR 2024 in Cleveland! Stay tuned for photos, scientific session abstracts, and a save-the-date for FACTOR 2025!

As we sail into Sarcoma Awareness Month, we strive to create awareness from multiple perspectives:

- We spotlight Dr. Chris Kuo, a pediatric oncologist who lost his brother Stanley to osteosarcoma. Dr. Kuo shines a light on the impact of a cancer diagnosis on siblings in a recently published article and will join our osTEAo AYA podcast this month to discuss.

- With the support of our MIB Agents Family Funds™, we are proud to support and highlight five investigators through our 2024 OutSmarting Osteosarcoma research grant program.

- A comprehensive guide to osteosarcoma, our OS Navigation Packets are a vital resource for both patients and healthcare professionals and are free to patients, families, hospitals, and clinics.

- Our advocacy partners at the Sarcoma Patient Advocacy Global Network (SPAGN) are raising awareness #EarlyDiagnosisSavesLives and spearheading a patient survey to better understand the global reality of sarcoma patients’ diagnostic experiences.

We hope you will join us in raising awareness for both Sarcoma and Childhood Cancer. Please consider signing up to become a Bow Agent for September Childhood Cancer Awareness Month to support programs, education, and research for the osteosarcoma community.

With hope,

Ann

Save The Date

^{OUR COMMUNITY}‍

Become a Bow Agent

Bow season is coming! Help your community raise awareness with us this September by signing up as a Bow Agent Volunteer. As a Bow Agent, you will distribute beautiful gold bows in your communities for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. A gold bow is a symbol of hope, resilience, and solidarity!

Sign Up to Be a Bow Agent

‍

Our OutBidding auction is on for Sarcoma Awareness Month, featuring exclusive items to bid on. We encourage you to share the OutBidding Osteosarcoma auction link and details with your family, friends, and community. Remember, every bid Makes It Better!

‍Auction ends July 21st, 5 PM ET.

Shop the Auction

2024 OutSmarting Osteosarcoma Recipients

We are pleased to announce our 2024 OutSmarting Osteosarcoma Recipients!

$100,000 grant recipients

Shahana S. Mahajan, PhD | Hunter College of the City University of New York

Jill Kolesar, PharmD & Chris Richards, PhD | University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center

$50,000 Young Investigator grant recipients

Arianexys Aquino-López, MD, PhD | Baylor College of Medicine

Granted Because of Sydney

Chelsey Burke, MD | Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Granted Because of Ava

Betsy Young, MD | University of California, San Francisco

Granted Because of Charlotte

‍

Learn More

Read Project Abstracts

Spotlight on Christopher Kuo, MD

Christopher Kuo, MD is an Attending Physician at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and a Clinical Instructor of Pediatrics at Keck School of Medicine of USC. He is a physician-scientist, currently doing his post-doctoral research at Dr. James F. Amatruda’s lab, investigating the tumor microenvironment of Ewing sarcoma utilizing a novel genetic zebrafish model, along with spatial proteogenomic technologies. He is currently supported by the George Donnell Society, St. Baldrick’s Foundation, A.P. Giannini Foundation, and the Coco Johnson Pediatric Sarcoma Fund. His commitment to Making It Better for osteosarcoma patients is driven by his brother Stanley, who passed away from osteosarcoma. His expertise in osteosarcoma is not only from a scientific and clinical perspective but from that of a family member and brother. In a recently published article “The unfulfilled promise from a forgotten child,” Dr. Kuo reflects on his experience in the aftermath of Stanley’s cancer diagnosis and in doing so, gives voice to the impact of a cancer diagnosis on siblings, which is often overlooked.‍

Learn More About Dr. Kuo

Read Dr. Kuo's Article

Career Connections

- ALADDIN Research Fellowship

- NCI Immunotherapy Fellowship

- Pediatrics - Oncology Sarcoma (Professor) - Baylor College of Medicine

- Sarcoma Oncologist - Georgetown Cancer Institute

- Research Opportunities (Sarcoma) - WUSTL, Van Tine Lab

- Sarcoma Oncology, Assistant to Full Professor - Roswell Park

- Bone and Soft Tissue/Sarcoma Pathologist - University Hospital of Cleveland Medical Center

- Pediatric Oncology Solid Tumor Clinician Educator - Stanford

- Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Clinician Educator) Hematology-Oncology-CHLA

- Scientist, Osteosarcoma Cell Therapy Initiative, UCSF Roybal Lab, Allen Lab

- Director of the CSU Flint Animal Cancer Center‍

If you have a job posting and you would like it included here, please email christina@mibagents.org.

^‍

^{EDUCATION‍‍}

^{OsteoBites Webinar Series}

Watch Past Episodes and See the Upcoming Schedule

^{Tumor Review Board for Osteosarcoma}

A virtual tumor review board for osteosarcoma, TURBO is open to global clinicians or researchers with an interest in osteosarcoma. Patients and families are welcome to ask their oncologists to present a case on their behalf.  Join TURBO to request an invite or submit a case.‍

‍NOTE NEW DATE FOR NEXT MEETING: July 17th at 5pm ET

‍Join TURBO

Osteosarcoma in the News

- Poverty, race, ethnicity, and survival in pediatric nonmetastatic osteosarcoma: a Children’s Oncology Group report

- Oral transforming growth factor-beta receptor 1 inhibitor vactosertib promotes osteosarcoma regression by targeting tumor proliferation and enhancing anti-tumor immunity

- TrkA+ sensory neurons regulate osteosarcoma proliferation and vascularization to promote disease progression

- 3D printed scaffolds with quercetin and vitamin D3 nanocarriers: In vitro cellular evaluation

- Enhancing pediatric access to cell and gene therapies

- PDE1B, a potential biomarker associated with tumor microenvironment and clinical prognostic significance in osteosarcoma

- An immune-related eleven-RNA signature-drived risk score model for prognosis of osteosarcoma metastasis

- Intrinsic epigenetic state of primary osteosarcoma drives metastasis

- Machine learning survival prediction using tumor lipid metabolism genes for osteosarcoma

- New immunotherapy could treat cancer in the bone

PROGRAMS

OS Navigation Packets

OS Navigation Packets are resource packets featuring MIB’s Osteosarcoma Handbook. Written by osteosarcoma families with contributions and edits by leading physicians, Osteosarcoma: From Our Families To Yours is MIB’s comprehensive guide to osteosarcoma. The Navigation Packets also include a wealth of helpful information from our partner organizations for those facing osteosarcoma. OS Navigation Packets are available with complete materials in both English and Spanish, provided at no charge to hospitals, patient families, and clinics. Add some MIB Program Rack Cards to your order as well!  

Please email isabel@mibagents.org with any questions.

‍Order OS Navigation Packets

RESEARCH

The Global Sarcoma Diagnosis Pathway Survey

The Sarcoma Patient Advocacy Global Network (SPAGN) is spearheading an effort to better understand the global reality of sarcoma patients’ diagnostic experiences. Delays in diagnosing sarcomas are common. Existing data and publications on sarcoma diagnosis are limited. They often focus on specific countries, regions, or sarcoma subtypes, leaving gaps in our understanding. Please help fill this knowledge gap by sharing your experiences. Your feedback will help us analyze the diagnostic process, from initial symptoms to post-diagnosis management, on a global scale.

Take the Survey

If you have a trial that is currently enrolling osteosarcoma patients, please email christina@mibagents.org.

  All MIB Agents programs are free of charge, thanks to donors like you who Make it Better. Please consider a donation to support osteosarcoma patient programs, education, and research. 

 Donate