Every year, more than 10,000 children are diagnosed with cancer in the United States, and 40% of them are solid tumors. The most common tumors include neuroblastoma, Wilms' tumor, rhabdomyosarcoma, osteosarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma, retinoblastoma, and hepatoblastoma, and the treatment can include surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy. Frequently, the treatment results in significant toxicity that leads to long-lasting morbidity and sometimes mortality. The ability to accurately treat the tumor has become possible with advances in cancer biology, genomics, imaging techniques, tumor immunology, and drug delivery. The pediatric oncology lab aims to utilize the latest technology to precisely target the tumor cells and improve the outcome of children diagnosed with a solid tumor.
Research Director
Dr. Bill Chiu
Dr. Bill Chiu has been performing biomedical research since 1993, utilizing animal models to study human diseases. Previously, he has developed an inflammation-based mouse model for abdominal aortic aneurysm and a rat model simulating portal vein obstruction to study coagulation factor alteration. Dr. Chiu's current focus is on pediatric solid tumors, especially neuroblastoma. He has developed various preclinical animal models for neuroblastoma, including orthotopic mouse models, patient derived xenograft models, and surgical resection models. These models are platforms for testing novel treatment strategies as well as tools to understand the mechanisms of tumor formation. Dr. Chiu’s laboratory is supported by the NIH, American College of Surgeons, and industry partners.
Mission Statement
To understand the mechanisms of pediatric solid tumors, precisely target the specific causes, and devise unique medical or surgical treatments for every child
Goals
- Develop preclinical models that can faithfully recapitulate the tumor mechanism and microenvironment
- Design, create, and develop different controlled release platforms that can be loaded with novel therapeutics and applied in solid tumors
- Utilize molecular, genetic, immunological, bioengineering, and bioinformatics approaches to study mechanisms of tumor formation, progression, and metastasis
- Develop minimally invasive protocol capable of precisely targeting solid tumor and improving surgical resection margins
Lab Members
Kevin Flores-Galvez
Kevin Flores-Galvez is currently the Laboratory Manager for the Pediatric Oncology Laboratory. In this capacity since 2023, Kevin oversees projects in the Pediatric Oncology Laboratory primarily involving orthotopic preclinical modeling, advanced imaging techniques, surgical intervention, immunohistochemistry, and overseeing animal health during experiments when necessary. Kevin has worked in laboratory settings since 2020. His scientific background includes large and small animal medicine, veterinary work, research observation and data collection, facility inspections. He has held a variety of research positions most recently with SRI International in Menlo Park prior to his current position with Stanford Medicine.
Abstracts and Presentations
Implantable chemotherapy-loaded silk protein materials for neuroblastoma treatment
"These results show that intratumoral chemotherapy delivery may be a treatment strategy for pediatric neuroblastoma, potentially translatable to other focal tumors types. Furthermore, this treatment modality allows for a clinically relevant mouse model of tumor transformation that may be used for studying the phenotypical tumor recurrence and developing more effective treatment strategies for recurrent tumors."