About Team Finn

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Why Change the Story

For fifty years, there has been little to no progress in treatments for many pediatric tumours. The death rate for kids with certain types of cancer has not improved. The chemotherapy and radiation treatments are essentially the same as they were in the 1970s. These treatments attack healthy tissue along with the tumours themselves. This leaves children who do survive childhood cancer with tremendous long-term health consequences.

Although overall survival for children with cancer has improved substantially over the last five decades, significant challenges remain. A considerable number of childhood cancers are incurable, particularly those where tumours have recurred or metastasized. The most important challenge at this time is to understand why specific types of tumours spread or come back and why some of the most aggressive tumours are so resistant to therapy. Understanding these basic concepts will lead to improvements in cancer survival, improvements in the quality of life of children surviving their cancer, and will ultimately alleviate the burden on their families.

This has to change and the Team Finn Foundation is committed to being a part of that Change.

Why Start with Kids

We start with kids because Finn was just a kid. No kid should have to go through what he had to endure. We start with kids because kids can’t fight cancer alone.

Then there is rule of 7 versus 77. While we are highly supportive of all innovative research, we choose to focus on research that can add 77 years of life to a 7 year old as opposed to research that can add 7 years of life to a 77 year old.

In addition, the study of kids’ cancers has a unique place in the realm of cancer genomics and omics generally. Pediatric cancer genomes are typically more straightforward to study than those of adults. This is because kids’ genomes don’t have a lifetime of “other” mutations caused by environmental or personal exposures. Kids haven’t smoked or drank or just lived long enough to see their normal tissues mutate.

This can simplify the scientific analysis of the cancer and can facilitate a more efficient approach to attacking all cancers. In short, studying kids’ cancers will generate an unprecedented view of the tumour genomes in childhood diseases. This will also help inform the adult world of cancer research.

Accomplishments

Funding Research by Dr. Poul Sorensen: Team Finn is a huge supporter and believer in the work of Dr. Poul Sorensen, MD, and PhD. Poul holds the Johal Endowed Chair in Childhood Cancer Research and is a Professor in the Department of Pathology at the  University of British Columbia. He is also a Distinguished Scientist at the BC Cancer Agency.
Pediatric Personalized Onco-Genomics (POG): The BC Cancer Agency is committed to a project that sequences the tumours of terminally ill cancer patients in hopes of using genomic information to help find treatments for those who have no more treatment options. With support and encouragement from Team Finn, children were added to this project (known as Pediatric POG) in late 2013/early 2014.
Circulating DNA Research: The Team Finn Foundation co-funded a grant at BC Children's to assist in developing a personalized approach to detecting circulating DNA in children with solid tumours. The hope is that through this research a test will be developed, using blood samples instead of biopsies, to better identify mutations in tumours and to identify more effective targeted treatments to kill tumours in light of those mutations.
Finn’s Monkey Room Projects at BC Children's Hospital: As a tribute to a very special boy, these Monkey Room projects strive to transform the experience of child going through treatment through art and distraction.
CAN-Omics: The Team Finn Foundation has partnered with the Terry Fox Research Institute to financially support the development of a business plan for a Canadian pediatric research initiative called CAN-Omics (CANadian . COnsortiM for Personalized ChIldhood Cancer TherapieS).
Training Grants for Pediatric Oncology Researchers: A partnership with Mitacs helped to fund research projects aimed at developing targeted therapies for childhood cancer patients. Mitacs has matched funds donated by Team Finn to support post-doctoral students doing important pediatric cancer research - $300,000 donated by Team Finn was leveraged into almost $700,000 of funds towards work in pediatric cancer research.

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