“What's really important about VeloSano is that it allows people to come in with new ideas and get preliminary data so that they can move forward and do these big projects that can be very impactful.”
Each year, our team at Cleveland Clinic Children’s treats approximately 90 new cancer patients and around 125 returning cancer patients. Additionally, we care for about 200 patients with complex blood disorders. While we diligently track each patient’s healthcare journey, we have lacked a way to organize and streamline the enrollment of children and young adults into clinical trials. Recognizing this gap, a pediatric hematology oncologist applied for a VeloSano grant to address this critical need.
Seth Rotz, MD, Director of the Childhood Cancer Survivorship Program, is building a patient registry where they will collect important information about each patient’s illness, treatment and progress. This will help doctors understand trends, improve treatments and potentially discover new therapies.
“The goal of this project is to create a central place where we keep track of all the patients coming in, and in that same place, quickly let clinicians know that a patient is eligible for X, Y and Z,” says Dr. Rotz. “We’re trying to direct traffic in a much more efficient manner so that we can get more folks on trials.”
As the number of patients at Cleveland Clinic Children’s continues to rise, the need for support has become increasingly urgent. With just four percent of federal cancer research funding going to pediatric cancer, initiatives like VeloSano and events such as Trike & Bike play a crucial role in ending this devastating disease.
“Cancer is certainly impactful to anybody of any age,” says Dr. Rotz. “However, when you look at it in terms of years lost, a five-year-old child who dies of cancer is losing many years of life compared to an 80-year-old patient. So having these programs through VeloSano that are directly supporting children is huge.”
Dr. Rotz has also been a dedicated participant in Bike to Cure for many years, driven by his commitment to his patients and the need to come up with the best care plan possible for them. That includes survivorship and helping patients deal with the long-term effects of treatment.
“For me and my career, it’s not just treating the patient in front of me,” says Dr. Rotz. “It’s about trying to move the field forward so that the next generation of patients has it a little bit easier. We aim to cure more patients, and for those we cure, to reduce the long-term health complications from treatment. What we’re doing now is certainly better than 20 or 30 years ago, but it’s still not enough.”
100% For The Cure
