By Tom Pendergrass 

Special to the Reporter

The Kirkland Kiwanis Foundation recently provided a $10,000 donation to the Kiwanis Children’s Cancer Program Seattle.

The donation was made through a gift from one of KKF’s members in memory of his wife, Ellen Lutz.

KCCP began in Oregon where Kiwanians partnered to provide funding for pediatricians who were training to become hematologists and oncologists. The KCCP has grown to include the pediatric hematology oncology fellowships at the three major pediatric hospitals in the Pacific Northwest: Doernbecker Children’s Hospital at the Oregon Health Sciences University, British Columbia Children’s Hospital at the University of British Columbia and Seattle Children’s and the University of Washington.

In the 1970s, less than 30 percent of children who developed a cancer survived. By 2005, more than 80 percent of children who develop a cancer survived. This change over 30 years is because of a combination of steady and sometimes groundbreaking research, improvements in supportive care and a supply of well-trained, dedicated pediatric hematology/oncology physicians.

KCCP provides funding for supporting trainees, while Kiwanis clubs continue to join with other agencies in supporting patients, patient care and research units. Kiwanis clubs in the Pacific Northwest recognized that the advances in care of children with cancer has been and is dependent on a continuing supply of pediatricians who are experts in care of children with cancer and skilled in research methods.

These pediatricians are also committed to continuing with innovative research to improve care with a goal of successful treatment of all children who develop a malignancy. The Pacific Northwest KCCP now provides salary and benefits for one fellow — a pediatrician who is training to become a productive hematologist/oncologist — at each of the fellowship programs in Pacific Northwest children’s hospitals.

Childhood cancers are different from those in adults. First, they are much more rare. There are about 9,300 children who are newly diagnosed with cancer each year, compared to about 2 million new cases of cancer in adults. Another difference is that childhood cancers are typically made up of immature cells. These cells are similar to those that form organs and can present as leukemia, lymphoma, brain, bone and muscle cancers. These cancers tend to grow more rapidly, spread to other sites in the body and are overall more aggressive than cancers in adults.

It is this rarity and types of malignancies in children that have led to major and ongoing research efforts. More than 75 percent of children are treated on national or international protocols. These collaborative treatment efforts of hundreds of children’s hospitals and pediatric hematology/oncology physicians have led to the identification of more effective chemotherapy, surgery and or radiation therapy for each type of childhood malignancy.

The improved patient survival through better selection and use of cancer drugs with or without surgery and radiation has helped opened new and improved treatment combinations. This research has also provided the basis for use of features of the patient’s own immune system to select treatments. Recently, the ability to genetically modify the patient’s own T-cells, part of the immune system, to attack and control certain cancers has led to markedly improved treatment of types of leukemia that have failed usual protocols.

Faculty and trainees in the oncology program at Seattle Children’s have been leaders in developing and testing modified T-cells to treat these leukemia patients. They are studying the use of modified T-cells to treat neuroblastoma, an aggressive cancer of the nerves.

KCCP Seattle is the leader for the fundraising in Washington. In 2017, the combined efforts of Kiwanis clubs and Key clubs (youth leadership program for high school students) raised more than $100,000 for the fellowship program at Seattle Children’s.

The KKF invites others to join in contributing to the KCCP Seattle through their local Kiwanis Club or directly to KCCP Seattle. Donations to KCCP also can be done directly through the Seattle Children’s Foundation.

For more information about KKF, visit www.kirklandkiwanisfoundation.org or contact Tom Pendergrass at (206) 910-1949.

To learn more about what the Kiwanis Club of Kirkland is doing to serve children and families in Kirkland, visit www.kirkland.kiwanis.org.

Tom Pendergrass is secretary of the Kiwanis Club of Kirkland and a member of the Kirkland Kiwanis Foundation.