Here is one of the stories to show what you do to make future of our kids better.
Eight out of ten children diagnosed with "acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)", strange as it may sound are the lucky ones. There is a sufficiently effective protocol of the cancer treatment developed for them as well as a selection of drugs available to hospitals. If this treatment is applied on time at a modern research hospital such as FNKС (Federal Oncohematological Center), the therapy provides the high level of survival.
For the remaining 20% children who confront ALL the standard therapy is ineffective... Most of them couldn't be cured even by with bone marrow transplantation. Until recently, doctors had no effective tool to fight this kind of cancer. Since the beginning of the 2010s the world's leading cancer labs - especially ones in the United States - are working on a technology called Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy (therapy with T cells with the chimeric receptor to an antigen).
The appearance of CAR T-Cell method has become possible as a result of both radical progress in understanding the nature of cancer as a disease, and in connection with the development of genetic engineering technology that occurred after a complete translation of human genome.
The method uses patient’s blood T-cells that are rebuilt in the genetics laboratory to carry specific antigens that confront cancer and then introduced back into the blood. They attack other cancer cells in blood, providing the cure to a patient. To date, CAR T-Cell Therapy remains in an experimental stage, with multiple clinical trials conducted. Such tests are held in the US and Europe, but not yet available for young patients in Russia.
Podari.Life joined forces with FNKC and the sister Russian charity «Podari Zhizn» to bring the essential cure opportunity to Russian kids. We started the project with a purpose to include Russian patients into CAR T-cell therapy clinical trials. This is a complex scientific and administrative process (technology transfer). The first step is to receive the consent of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation: the institution requires a special documentation for the method that corresponds to Russian medical standards. This is a precluding condition to make CAR T-cell therapy available for patients in Russia. Another side of the story is to ensure the understanding from the authors and patent owners in the US that Russia has scientists and doctors who are able to use CAR T-cell therapy and achieve a positive result.
Today we are pleased to announce to our donors and supporters that with your generous help, we made the first step on this long road. Podari.Life invested the creation of the clinical description of CAR T-cell therapy under the Russian ministerial standard. The document will be submitted to the Russian Ministry of Health to obtain consent for conducting the tests. For Podari.Life this step is very important also because it is fully consistent with our mission of public charity - to promote the development and dissemination of knowledge, allowing better and more efficient fight with child cancer in Russia.
Thanks to your donations we were able to invest $5,000 towards this important goal. We'll keep you updated on further advancement.