Funding outcome

We know that about 1/3 of children with cancer can develop dangerous blood clots because of their cancer treatment. When these blood clots form in veins, they block blood flow to important organs and damage to that organ. For example, if the blood clot lodges in the brain it will cause a stroke. Our research team is interested in studying why these blood clots occur in children being treated for cancer. We know that these blood clots occur when the child is receiving certain chemotherapy drugs for their cancer treatment. These drugs are critically important to curing children's cancer so need to be used, and so, we want to prevent the blood clotting side effects. We have a theory that after these drugs enter the child's blood stream they effect the cells lining the veins which makes the child's blood more prone to making clots. The chemotherapy drugs affect the vein because cells that line the inside of the veins can actually produce certain proteins that cause blood to form a clot. After a short time in the bloodstream, we think that the chemotherapy turns on the genes in these cells causing the cells in the veins to produce these blood clotting proteins in large amounts, resulting in formation of blood clots in the veins. We will test this theory by growing cells from the blood vessel walls in a petri dish testing the effect of chemotherapy on how the genes react and if the cells produce the blood clotting proteins. Project Description: In petri dishes, we will grow the same type of cells that coat the inside of the blood vessel. Then we will put the chemotherapy drugs on the cells and test the cells to see if the genes are 'turned on' and whether the levels of blood clotting proteins are increased. If we can determine which blood clotting proteins are increased because of chemotherapy, we can use a drug specific for stopping that protein from causing blood clots. With results of this research work, we can prevent these children from having strokes because of their cancer treatment.