Erin and Sophia Santos, Dr. Cheung & the MSKCC Neuroblastoma team

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC is one of the top Neuroblastoma research facilities in the country.   Dr. Cheung, head of the neuroblastoma program, and his team are doing remarkable things. In December of 2016, Isabella Santos Foundation gave $202,000 to Dr. Cheung’s team to help push a research program, The SADA drug delivery platform, forward.  We thank you for allowing us to choose these programs that will help move the needle forward on something we feel is really important and a step in the right direction for research and treatment.

One of the difficulties with previous cancer therapeutics has been the inability to control off-target effects.  Children may have the possibility to beat neuroblastoma, but then die from unintended long term side-effects caused from the traditional chemotherapies that affect all parts of the body.  The SADA drug delivery platform was created to control drug delivery with such precision that toxicity only occurs where the drug is picked up by tumor cells, and not to normal bone marrow, the immune system, kidney or other vital organs.  This  novel technology has the potential to completely change the way we deliver strong medicines needed for children, where off-target effects could be devastating with long term consequences.

Isabella Santos Foundation is funding the construction of the proteins that target the tumor cells, and the testing of these proteins in the fight against neuroblastoma.  If successful, this will not only make treatments safer and more effective for neuroblastoma, but can be transferred to use in all cancers.  

Isabella was treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering and we have seen the remarkable programs Dr. Cheung and his team have worked on.  Isabella ran out of treatment options.  She died because her cancer has very little funding.  We continue to work to change that.

Dr. Cheung