The University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix and the Phoenix Children’s Hospital have announced plans for a $50 million research institute that will work to develop new therapies for the treatment of childhood, adolescent and young-adult cancer.
The university and the hospital will also work with Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) to create the Ronald A. Matricaria Institute of Molecular Medicine, Phoenix Children’s Hospital CEO Bob Meyer said. Matricaria is a member of the hospital’s board of directors and donated the initial funds.
“Unlike other children’s hospitals, the (Matricaria) Institute will diagnose and treat children with serious conditions based on genetic information rather than only clinical symptoms,” Meyer said.
Stuart D. Flynn, dean of the UA College of Medicine-Phoenix, said the school will “provide part of the foundation for the research aspects for the institute.”
He also said both medical students and residents at the college will be on the research team.
“The University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix provides vital access to academia, research, and drugs and compounds,” Meyer said.
Meyer said that patient trials at the Matricaria Institute would be based on an approach that has not been used before in children.
“Physicians at the Matricaria Institute will devise treatment plans on a patient-by-patient basis using drug therapies they believe will attack and correct malfunctioning genes,” he said.
Currently 70 percent of medications provided for children have not been tested for children, but handed down from adults, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
Childhood cancer is the No. 1 cause of death by disease in children younger than 14 years old, according to the National Cancer Institute, and 12,000 new diagnoses are expected to be made this year.
Similarly, the National Cancer Institute said, in previous years, diagnoses of cancer in adolescents and young adults have been made almost six times more than diagnoses of childhood cancer, and survival rates have not shown any improvement in 30 years.
The Matricaria Institute is planning to begin trials in 2013 with child, adolescent and young-adult patients who have no other options for treatment, Meyer said. Ideally, these trials will open doors to new patient-specific therapies in the long run.
“This (Matricaria) Institute will tackle difficult challenges in understanding the breadth of childhood diseases … offering us new insights in both prevention and treatment,” Flynn said.
Among the institute’s team of world-renowned doctors will be medical oncologist Daniel Von Hoff of TGen, who has experience in developing drugs for cancer in adults, Meyer said.
“Leveraging the assets of partnering institutions and expert physician scientists will not only save time and money but will also avoid duplicating costly scientific infrastructure,” he said.
Meyer said the institute’s goal is to ultimately unlock genetic codes, change the course of diseases and give patients hope.
Frank Crane, 62, is a parent of two children. He said he thinks the collaboration is a strong partnership.
“It sounds like a really good idea I’m all for helping children in every way, both with health issues and anything developmental,” Crane said.
Although his wife, Lori, has some concerns with the cost of cancer medication, she said she “supports anything that will figure out how to kill (cancer).”
Contact the reporter at amespin7@asu.edu
