ANITA ASSOCIATION CALLS ON 250,000 CITIZENS TO MAKE A MICRO-EFFORT OF €1 TO LAUNCH A 5-YEAR INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH PROGRAM TO CURE CHILDHOOD "DEVELOPMENTAL CANCER".

• Cancers affecting children have nothing to do with adult cancer. Therefore, funding adult cancer research does NOT HELP research on childhood "Developmental Cancer" AT ALL.

• Individual citizens contribute 70% of the funds needed to research childhood "Developmental Cancer", keeping research alive. 250,000 people have the power to launch this research program with a micro-effort of €1.

BARCELONA, October 2, 2015 - Asociación Benéfica Anita, a non-profit association for the research of childhood "germ cell tumor" (a type of "developmental cancer" suffered by children and teenagers), announced today the creation of a 5-year (2015-2020) international scientific research and training program for a senior researcher, funded by micro donations and 100% for the benefit of the research foundation "Sant Joan de Déu Research Foundation"; in order to accelerate a cure for this terrible and "rare" disease; and to train an expert to work locally in our country.

After facing, since she was 2 years old, 10 operations, 27 cycles of chemotherapy (of 21 different types), 32 sessions of radiotherapy, being hospitalized more than 39 times, and undergoing a bone marrow autotransplant; her little body could no longer endure so much toxicity. Anita, a 5-year-old girl, left us on December 19, 2014. The Asociación Benéfica Anita arises from friendship and solidarity, as a result of the total desperation of some parents due to the lack of treatments to cure their daughter.

"It is easier to fight when your daughter is alive. We feel the need to keep fighting even having lost Anita, because we don't want anyone to suffer as we did," - said Carolina Amado Vega, President of the association and Anita's Mom. "Human beings unfortunately only react when things happen to them. In this case, when it happens to you (when you are told that your daughter has cancer) it is already too late to react. We have to worry now, to save children who have cancer tomorrow (research takes years to be effective)."

The association today called on 250,000 citizens to contribute with a MICRO EFFORT of 1€, to make this important project a reality, and thus avoid the suffering and nightmare that more than 1,200 children like Anita suffer every year in our country, when they are diagnosed with this disease.

Music lovers are in luck, as the association also announced today the start of the "Music Cures" campaign, through which citizens can contribute 100% to the research and enjoy a benefit concert of "Rock And Roll Music" by LOS BRAZOS, next October 16th in Barcelona ... All at the same time! The appointment is at Sala Bikini with tickets and "Fila 0" already on sale at Ticketmaster.es and 2,200 usual box offices.

"The cancers that affect children, the teenagers and young adults, have nothing to do with adult cancer", - said Dr. Jaume Mora, Head of Pediatric Oncology at the Hospital Maternoinfantil Sant Joan de Déu and founder of the research foundation. "And this is the first thing we have to learn and be very clear about. Children do not have lung cancer, breast cancer or colon cancer, which is the cancer of aging. Cancer is the result of living many years: the more years we live, the more our cells degenerate, and the more risk we have of developing cancer as adults. Children do not have this, children have alterations that are linked to the opposite process, to the process of forming an individual, and that is why we speak of "developmental cancer", the cancer of formation, of generation. And there are many diseases and all of them are very rare.

"The resources of our public health system are understandably allocated to those diseases that have a high prevalence", - said Dr. Jaume Mora -, "therefore, now and always, here, in the United States and Northern Europe, the study and research of "rare" diseases have always been supported by the drive of the families, the associations of those affected and the professionals involved.... We can only express our deepest gratitude to the growing number of people and families who support us. In fact, 70% of our laboratory's budget comes from donations from these families," continued Dr. Mora. - continued Dr. Mora - "To be able to explain to fathers and mothers whether their child's tumor has a good chance of being cured or not.... we have to think about alternative treatments, treatments that are more innovative, and more in the area of fundamental research.

One of the main challenges for scientists is to be able to guarantee continued research for at least 5 years in order to obtain significant results. Therefore, being able to fund a research and specialized training program for 1 senior researcher for 5 years is more valuable and effective for this type of disease than being able to fund 10 researchers for 1 year.

"Our research is dedicated to developing more effective treatments for childhood germ cell tumors. We are using new genome sequencing technologies to study tumors at the DNA level in order to discover mutations in the tumor that cause it to grow out of control," said James F. Amatruda, M.D., Director and Principal Investigator of the Amatruda Lab, an international research and training partner of UTSouthwestern University Medical Center. "Fundamentally, this knowledge should make it possible to design new treatments for childhood germ cell tumors that specifically target genetic lesions in cancer cells. Because these mutations occur in tumor cells, but not in the body's normal cells, we hope that this discovery will allow us to create treatments that are more effective than current ones, while exposing children to fewer toxic side effects." - Dr. Amatruda continued, "One of the challenges we face is the fact that many of these mutations we discovered have not been studied before, so we are also using a small aquarium with Zebra fish as a genetic model to study how specific mutations lead to the development of germ cell tumors. Using the fish model will also allow us to test new therapies for these types of tumors."

Childhood "Germ Cell Tumor" is a type of "Developmental Cancer", and they all actually occur RANDOMLY (regardless of the child's genetic history), therefore, any child can be affected by this mutation during the development of their organs. "It is A genetic LOTTERY."

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ABOUT ANITA CHARITY ASSOCIATION

Asociación Anita is a non-profit charity founded by a group of friends of Anita's parents to raise funds to assist in the research and development of treatments related to malignant germ cell tumors in children and teenagers.

LINKS

• http://www.asociacionanita.org/

• http://www.ticketmaster.es/es/entradas-musica/los-brazos-benefico-charity/17399/

• http://www.fsjd.org/memoria-onco-2014-cas_93038.pdf

• http://www.losbrazos.com/

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