Already funded by the National Cancer Institute (NIH)
The major goal of this project is to test the hypothesis that IL4Rα blockade will prevent new soft tissue sarcoma engraftment, metastases and relapse by interfering with tumor cell – muscle stem cell interactions and thus represent an efficacious therapeutic strategy for children with rhabdomyosarcoma and other soft tissue sarcomas. Support for this concept is found in our publications Clin Cancer Res. 2011 May 1;17(9):2757 and Stem Cells. 2013 Nov;31(11):2304. This project has the collaborative support of the Children’s Oncology Group Phase I and Soft Tissue Sarcoma committee chairpersons, as well as the principal investigator of the Pediatric Preclinical Testing Program and active discussions are ongoing with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.
