Dear Motorcyclist,
Our first Ride for Kids®was three years ago. A year after my son Devin was diagnosed with an astrocytoma brain tumor at the age of 3. As I told Devin's story at the event, I looked out at the crowd of motorcyclists, Stars, and parents. It was an amazing show of support.It was wonderful to have all those people come up and give Devin high-fives and tell him he can do it. I believe he is still with us due partly to all of the support that we get from Ride for Kids® and the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation.
Another highlight from our first ride was meeting a family who had helped us in so many ways when we first found out about Devin's brain tumor. They helped me on many nights when I was having such a hard time. They were always there, just like the riders from the Ride for Kids®.
If you have not attended a ride yet, do yourself and your family a favor and join in. Once you have experienced it you will be back year after year.
We send a huge thank you to all the riders that join in. Without you we couldn't get the needed funds to continue to find a cure. You are all angels and you will never know how much your support means the Stars and their families.
Love, Devin's Mom
Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation Research Priorities
Brain tumors in children are the leading cause of deaths from childhood cancer. They are the second most frequent malignancy of childhood and the most common form of solid tumors. The prognosis for children with these central nervous system tumors is poor and, depending on tumor type, has not changed over the past 10 to 20 years. The effects of the tumor and its treatment often affect the quality of the life of the child. In 2000 the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute for Neurological Diseases and Stroke supported a Progress Review Group on Brain Tumors in adults and children. Expert basic and clinical scientists were assembled as well as patient advocates to identify and prioritize the unmet the scientific needs and opportunities considered critical to the advancement of research in the field of brain tumors. The "Brain Tumor Progress Review Group" has determined that "on the largest scales, the overriding challenges for research into pediatric brain tumors are to improve outcome for children with a host of different types of brain tumors. The predominant barriers are the relative infrequency of any individual tumor types, the presence of embryonal/primitive tumors that often disseminate to the leptomeniges, and the lack of interest in, focus on, and funding for research on these primitive tumors." Specific challenges associated with improving outcomes for children with pediatric brain tumors and barriers to meeting these challenges are grouped into four categories: tumor biology, epidemiology, treatment, and long-term sequelae. The Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation (PBTF) has a long history of research funding that includes basic, translational, and clinical research awards. Additionally, the PBTF has funded quality-of-life research. The research programs of the PBTF have grown each year, with greater commitment of funds to support and encourage researchers to enter the field of pediatric brain tumor research. The PBTF has supported collaborative research symposiums such as the Symposium on Pediatric Neuro-Oncology; the Society for Neuro-Oncology; and the International Symposium on Brain Tumor Research and Therapy in an effort to keep the research needs of children with brain tumors in the minds of laboratory, translational and clinical researchers. Today the PBTF is the largest non-governmental funder of pediatric brain tumor research, but we are not satisfied and continue to push forward to increase the quantity and quality of research for pediatric brain tumors. We hope you will join us in our search for the cause and cure of these tumors that take the lives of children.
Pediatric Brain Tumor Research
PBTF Institute at Duke UniversityGrant Award 2003-2008: $12 million
Director: Darell D. Bigner, M.D., Ph.D.
Chair, Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation Scientific Advisory Board
Director, Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke
Edwin L. Jones, Jr. and Lucille Finch Jones Cancer Research Professor
PBTF Institute at University of California, San Francisco
Grant Award 2005-2008: $1.3 million
Director: Mitchel S. Berger, M.D.
Director, Brain Tumor Surgery Program
Director, Neurosurgical Research Centers, Brain Tumor Research Center
Professor and Chairman, Department of Neurological Surgery
Kathleen M. Plant Distinguished Professor
PBTF Institute at the Hospital for Sick Children
Grant Award 2005-2008: $1.3 million
Director: James T. Rutka, M.D., Ph.D., FRCSC, FACS, FAAP
Co-director, The Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre
Dan Family Chair in Neurosurgery, Professor and Chair, Div. of Neurosurgery, Univ. of Toronto