we are a grassroots organization, powered by teen advocates who are dedicated to raising crucial funds for the advancement of more effective treatments and better outcomes for Pediatric Cancer patients, all through the universal language of music.
OUR STORY
Chords2Cure raises money to support Pediatric Cancer research and clinical trials at the UCLA Sarcoma Program. C2C was created in 2015 by a handful of compassionate students at Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences (in Los Angeles) and their families when their friend, Jaxon Blumenthal (now 22) was diagnosed with hepatoblastoma (liver cancer). Jax underwent 6 grueling rounds of chemotherapy, a liver transplant and a lung resection. Soon after, he met fellow Crossroads student, Mafalda von Alvensleben (now 24), who was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma (bone cancer). Over the course of 9 months, Mafalda's treatment included 17 rounds of chemotherapy, 20 days of radiation and femur bone replacement surgery. Jax and Mafalda quickly realized they had many things in common including their love of music and the same oncologist, Dr. Noah Federman at UCLA.
A small but mighty group of fellow students and their parents took action once they discovered that Pediatric Cancer research receives only 4% of government funds dedicated to cancer research and that the treatments Jax and Mafalda were receiving were 30+ years old. One of the co-founders of C2C was Juliette Pegula (now 22) who was good friends with Jax and who shared a passion for music. Together, they hatched the idea for an annual benefit concert!
To date, C2C has raised over $1,200,000.
In addition to the dedicated student performers, guest musical artists have included:
OneRepublic, Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol, Zac Barnett from American Authors, Chris Shiflett from Foo Fighters,Magic Giant, Kelsy Karter, and Chris Martin from Coldplay, who was so impressed with the kids that he invited Jax and his band to open for Coldplay at the Rose Bowl.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, some of our performers and their parents created a video to honor doctors and health care workers who were working tirelessly to keep their patients safe.
Where the Money Goes
All proceeds go directly towards Dr. Noah Federman's research for Pediatric Cancer at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.
OUR Mission is to keep pushing research towards revolutionary breakthroughs. C2C has helped Dr. Federman and the Sarcoma Program at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA with seed funding that has leveraged numerous projects for both NIH and industry funding along with other collaborators in the sarcoma program.
Among the many sarcoma clinical trials that Dr. Federman has worked on is the UCLA site PI for the DeFi Phase III randomized double-blind placebo controlled trial of Nirogacestat in progressive desmoid tumors. In the DeFi trial, the primary endpoint of improved progression free survival versus placebo was met, as were key secondary endpoints. This led to recent FDA approval (November 2023) of Nirogacestat as a first-in-class, first-in-disease systemic therapy for desmoid tumors.
He further is working with Alice Soragni (PhD) and Paul Boutrous on developing and studying sarcoma organoids derived from patients including patterns of gene expression; (NIH RO1 funded) as well as performing drug screening in the JCCC MSSR Shared Resource on sarcoma organoids. He is working with Paul on a NIH - National Cancer Institute funded project aiming a elucidating mechanisms of sarcoma drug resistance and sensitivity through patient derived organoid sarcoma models. Another major NIH funded project is aiming to utilize a new multisample, multidrug testing platform for directly measuring anti-tumor therapeutics via real-time optical cell biomass measurements in sarcoma organoids to delineate differences in drug resistance and response.
He is working with April Pyle and Steven Jonas on therapeutic targeting of the oncogenic driver, PAX-FOXO, in translocation positive rhabdomyosarcoma with CRISPR-CAS9 gene editing. The goal of this project is to remove or silence the genetic driver of this highly fatal sarcoma that mostly affects children. He hopes that by targeting and destroying the genetic driver of this sarcoma it will permanently shut down this cancer. Moreover, this is exciting as the technology used here will be able to be translated to other sarcomas that are driven by other cancer genetic fusions ie. Ewing sarcoma, synovial sarcoma, and others.
Further research project focus on sarcoma gene expression, metabolism of sarcomas, CAR-T cell therapeutic approaches, as well as liquid biopsy approaches in pediatric sarcomas. Dr. Federman is mentoring a fellow, Dr. Kenny Vo on developing CART approaches targeting LRRC15 in osteosarcoma.
Dr. Federman has finished accrual to hi investigator initiated trial of Mocetinostat and Vinorelbine trial in refractory Rhabdomyosarcoma which showed early encouraging durable responses in a heavily pretreated and poor outcome population of children with rhabdomyosarcoma. This is now moving forward with a larger phase 2 national multicenter trial currently in study design.
In other words, Dr. Federman’s team has been incredibly busy and we are grateful to our supporters for enabling us to help these tremendous efforts!
Dr. Noah Federman is the Director of the Pediatric Bone and Soft Tissue Sarcoma Program at UCLA, part of the UCLA Sarcoma Program and UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. He specializes in treating children, adolescents and young adults with aggressive cancers. He runs a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary program involving pediatric and medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, orthopedic oncology surgeons, musculoskeletal radiologists and pathologists, nuclear medicine specialists, physical therapists and prosthetic specialists. Dr. Federman also specializes in conducting clinical trials and leads an experienced clinical research team devoted to providing access to clinical trials for children with refractory, recurrent and metastatic bone and soft tissue cancers.
Pediatric Sarcomas, specifically Ewing Sarcoma (ES), is what C2C alumni board member, Mafalda von Alvensleben, was diagnosed with in 2014. ES is a highly aggressive bone and soft tissue cancer that affects mainly young patients ages 5 to 25. Only 3 in a million cases are reported each year, which makes it one of the rarest Pediatric Cancers. The pelvis is the most commonly affected area, followed by the femur, tibia, humerus, and scapula. The 5-year-survival rate for a localized tumor is 70%, whereas it is 15-20% if the tumor has spread when diagnosed. Higher dosages of chemotherapy drugs in shorter intervals have improved the outcome over the past 30 years. It is critical to be treated at a hospital like UCLA that has experience with ES.
Hepatoblastoma is a rare malignant liver cancer occurring primarily in children under the age of 3. C2C alumni board member Jax Blumenthal was diagnosed with Hepatoblastoma in 2013. His treatment included surgical removal of the tumor, adjuvant chemotherapy and a liver transplant. Primary liver transplantation provides long-term disease-free survival rate in the range of 80%. The presence of metastases is the strongest predictor of a poor prognosis. Hepatoblastoma is diagnosed in 2-3 children out of a million annually.
To date, Chords2Cure has raised over $1,000,000 for Dr. Federman's Research and Clinical Trials
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