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The Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund (Barncancerfonden) has decided to grant funding to eight research positions at KI for paediatric oncology research over the next two to six years. The goal is, among other things, to improve current treatment methods with the help of precision medicine that is based on the characteristics of the cancer and the individual child's genetics.

Follow-up and treatment of children with cancer is significantly improved when inherited genetic causes are also investigated, according to a new Swedish study. The results of the research study involving some 50 researchers and clinicians from across Sweden have been published in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe.

Through a new call form, the Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund is funding two research programmes that will look at different types of unwanted side effects, primarily from chemotherapy. Precision medicine and the opportunities offered by the development of biomarkers are common to the two programmes, which are led by KI researchers Susanna Ranta and Kenny Rodriguez-Wallberg, respectively, and which now share SEK 19 million over four years.

In clinical studies, new methods and treatments are tested on humans under controlled conditions. However, clinical treatment studies are often very expensive to carry out and require resources that allow many different professional groups to work together. The Swedish Cancer Society has now decided on an extra allocation of grants to ten researchers for clinical studies. Six of these are researchers at Karolinska Institutet.

The Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund's allocation reflects the needs that exist in areas such as new technology and precision medicines. This year's call for proposals means that SEK 125 million will be allocated to 62 projects in the field of childhood cancer, of which SEK 35,400,000 will go to researchers at Karolinska Institutet.

KI researcher Stefan Skare receives funding from Barncancerfonden (the Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund) for the development of motion-robust MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) methods for examining awake children with brain and spinal cord tumors. The project receives a total of SEK 3.9 million over three years.

On 1 November 2023, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Health Minister Acko Ankarberg Johansson, visited Genomic Medicine Sweden (GMS) to learn about the work on precision medicine for improved cancer care. Some of the topics discussed included broad gene sequencing as part of personalised healthcare, as well as the treatment and accessibility of data.

The Swedish Childhood Tumor Biobank is a nationally established genomic biobank infrastructure in the field of childhood cancer that works to promote research on childhood tumors. Within the Genomic Medicine Sweden (GMS) Child Cancer project, the Swedish Childhood Tumor Biobank at KI and the Department of Oncology-Pathology receive SEK 5.13 million from the government.

Close on 500 colleagues in the cancer field from Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institutet gathered in Aula Medica during this year’s Karolinska CCC conference on 30–31 March. Also attending were Sahlgrenska CCC and Skåne CCC.

Researchers at the Department of Oncology-Pathology have together with researchers from The European Molecular Biology Laboratory published a paper in Nature Chemical Biology where they developed a method that can identify important differences between proteins in an unbiased way.

Deep grief has both mental and physical health consequences for the sufferer that can take decades to heal. People can even die of grief. It is therefore important to try to alleviate the effects of severe grief, something that we in Sweden aren’t particularly good at.

Children who suffer a relapse of the aggressive cancer known as neuroblastoma have small chances of survival. However, a group including researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now shown that DHODH blockers, which are well-tolerated in humans, can cure neuroblastoma in mice if administered in combination with chemotherapy. The study, published in the journal JCI Insight, paves the way for clinical trials of this combination therapy.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, among others, have studied the benefit of adding an established drug as a novel targeted therapy in the treatment of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). The results suggest that the drug hydroxyurea can increase treatment efficacy at a relatively low cost. The results, which were published in the Journal of Internal Medicine, could have significant implications for cancer treatment, including in low-income countries.

In a new study, researchers at Karolinska Institutet show that the activation of specific cell surface proteins – cortisol, oestrogen and vitamin A – in mice with human neuroblastoma cells results in the neuronal differentiation of cancer cells which leads to reduced mortality. The results, published in the Journal of Experimental and Clinical Cancer Research, could, in the future, lead to a more gentle and effective treatment of this severe form of cancer in children.

The February sun was glittering in the glazed facades when Karolinska Institutet welcomed Minister for Education Anna Ekström on Monday 28 February. Meanwhile, the situation grew gloomier in Ukraine, which was demonstrated by, amongst other things, a lecture in disaster medicine.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the University of Gothenburg have found another piece of the puzzle in the treatment of the childhood cancer neuroblastoma. A new case report, published in JCO Precision Oncology, describes the successful targeted treatment of a boy with neuroblastoma and a specific mutation.

As a strategic investment, the Swedish Childhood Tumor Biobank will be allocated SEK 12 million for whole-genome sequencing of tumor and blood samples not yet analysed in the sample collection. The annual grant is increased to SEK 19 million for 2022. The GMS Childhood Cancer project receives multi-year support of a total of SEK 24 million. A project coordinator to enhance collaboration with the pediatric leukemia sample collection in Uppsala will be appointed, as a further strategic investment.

Congratulations to Andreas Lennartsson, at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, who received 500 000 SEK in project grants from the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation 2021 for a project on "New therapeutic approaches for infant and child acute leukemia".

The government is set to invest through the innovation authority Vinnova another SEK 96 million on Genomic Medicine Sweden (GMS), a national organisation led from Karolinska Institutet. Regions and universities are also putting up SEK 124 million, making a total of SEK 220 million that will make it possible to continue introducing precision medicine into Swedish healthcare.

Neuroblastoma is a type of childhood cancer that develops in infants and young children. Whilst it is a relatively rare form of cancer, it is still responsible for approximately 15 percent of all cancer deaths in children. In a new study published today in Nature Communications, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered that low-risk and high-risk neuroblastoma have different cell identities, which can affect the survival rate.

With the development of more effective treatment for childhood cancer, fertility preservation efforts have become routine at many centers. At the same time, there have been questions about the risks of relapse when re-transplanting ovarian tissue. Now researchers at Karolinska Institutet report on a woman who is expecting her second child after being treated for leukaemia as a teenager. This study, published in Haematologica, may be of great importance to many young women and their families.

Thanks to many years of translational research, some children with the rare childhood cancer neuroblastoma may now be cured. In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers at among others Karolinska Institutet and University of Gothenburg write that so-called ALK inhibitors should be tried to treat children with high-risk neuroblastoma. That is after an analysis showed that children with mutations in the ALK gene have poorer prognosis.

Ten researchers at Karolinska Institutet are granted funding through the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation's latest funding call, which in total distributes a little more than SEK 65 million. The grants include a six-year research position and several postdoctoral positions.

On April 29, KI will host a digital event focusing on cancer research, where researchers and professors will gather to talk about their ground-breaking research. Yvonne Wengström is one of the organizers and hopes for strong participation and an interactive dialogue on research in the field.

Congratulations to Peter Zaphiropoulos, at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, who received 1 million SEK in project grants from the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation 2020 for a project on Circular RNA in medulloblastoma.

The Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund’s largest research grant of the year has been awarded. A total of SEK 146 million will be distributed, a new record in the fight against childhood cancer. SEK 51.6 million of this will go towards research at Karolinska Institutet.