A tumor donation yields answers for a devastating form of childhood cancer
In October 2013, on her 6th birthday, Jennifer Kranz was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumor. “That was the day we found out she likely wouldn’t make it to 7,” Jennifer’s mom, Libby Kranz, told me recently. Jennifer had an especially aggressive form of a deadly childhood cancer called diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma. Sadly, she died less than four months after being diagnosed. During Jennifer’s illness, Libby and her husband, Tony Kranz, heard about the work of Stanford pediatric neurooncologist Michelle Monje, MD, PhD, who studies donated DIPG tumor tissue to understand how its biology might be targeted with new treatments. In their final appointment at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, the Kranzes asked if they could donate their daughter’s tumor for this research after her death. “They said ‘Yes, …Read more
