Research as a Care Option in Miami Saving Lives--Nicklaus Children’s and FIU Collaborate on Groundbreaking Cancer Research

Dr. Maggie Fader of Nicklaus Children’s Helen & Jacob Shaham Cancer & Blood Disorders Institute and KIDZ Medical has some lifesaving collaborations ongoing, including with Diana Azzam, assistant professor of environmental sciences at the FIU Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work at Florida International University. One of their focuses is a revolutionary functional precision medicine approach, published last month in Nature Medicine. Targeting cancer by combining genetic testing with a new way to test individual drugs on tumor samples, for the first time, this novel approach was used successfully guiding the treatment of relapsed hard-to-treat pediatric cancer patients. The study led to an 83% improvement rate in participating children, including a boy now 8-years old named Logan.

The boy’s cancer returned after a brief remission reports an informational insert at the Miami Herald.