Pediatric cancer fellow awarded grant to fight childhood cancers

A cancer researcher in the UAB Department of Pediatrics has been awarded a fellowship grant by the St. Baldrick's Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising money for childhood cancer research. Stuart Cramer, D.O., a fellow in the Division of Pediatric Hematology Oncology, is the recipient of the grant valued at more than $42,000.

Cramer's research focuses on neuroblastoma, a cancer that develops in the nervous tissue and accounts for about 15 percent of cancer deaths in children younger than age 2. His grant will enable him to examine MLN 8237, part of a class of drugs called inhibitors, and the role it plays in treatment-resistant neuroblastoma tumors. The California-based St. Baldrick's Foundation includes volunteer event organizers who led the way to raising $21.3 million to date in the fight against childhood cancers. It was founded as the idea of a group of reinsurance executives in New York, all with Irish roots.