Children’s Tumor Foundation

Organization Overview

www.ctf.org

The Children’s Tumor Foundation was founded in 1978 and funds research focused on finding effective treatments for the millions of people worldwide living with neurofibromatosis (NF), a term for three distinct disorders: NF1, NF2, and schwannomatosis. NF can cause tumors to grow on nerves throughout the body and may lead to blindness, bone abnormalities, cancer, deafness, disfigurement, learning disabilities, and excruciating and disabling pain. NF affects one in every 3,000 people, more than cystic fibrosis, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and Huntington’s disease combined. The Children’s Tumor Foundation’s research benefits those who live with NF and also sheds light on several forms of cancer, brain tumors, bone abnormalities, and learning disabilities, ultimately benefiting the broader community. There is currently no effectual treatment for neurofibromatosis, so CTF supports NF research from bench-to-bedside:

  1. Young Investigator Awards: Two year postdoctoral funding
  2. Drug Discovery Initiatives (DDI): Seed grants for preclinical screening of candidate NF treatments
  3. The NF Therapeutic Consortium: A multi-year, multi-center program to accelerate the identification of effective drug therapies.
  4. The NF Clinic Network:  In 44 locations nationwide, established to standardize and improve NF clinical care in the U.S., and to integrate it with NF research.
  5. Clinical Research Awards: CRAs offer funding to test a drug in a small group of patients or to develop clinical trial enabling tools such as imaging or biomarkers.
  6. Synodos: A first-of-its-kind NF research collaboration dedicated to defeating NF2 through the sharing of information, datasets, results, and more at every step in the drug discovery process.