Pediatric Blood Cancer News Item

Pediatric Blood Cancer Clinical Awards – Request for Proposals

October 22, 2024

Traditional treatments for pediatric blood cancer often include chemotherapy, radiation and stem cell transplants, which can have significant short-term and long-term consequences on the developing body of a child. There is a critical unmet need to reduce the burden of toxicity caused by the current standard of care while maintaining efficacy. 

This request for proposals (RFP) is open to projects focusing on therapy optimization in pediatric blood cancers that aim to minimize both short—and long-term treatment-associated toxicities.

Research Topic

This RFP welcomes clinical trials focused on therapy optimization in all types of pediatric blood cancers, such as new combination therapy, reduction of chemotherapy by integrating immunotherapy, and reduction in intensity or duration of maintenance therapy. 

We encourage interventional clinical trials (Phase I, II, or III) that include measurements of biomarkers to drive treatment decision-making and assess an intervention’s impact (e.g., minimal residual disease). This should help to correlate optimization or de-escalation of treatment while maintaining efficacy. 

Additionally, interventional clinical trials that focus on novel, less-toxic, targeted agents and immunotherapies, which might improve outcomes and decrease toxicity compared to current regimens, will also be considered. 

Clinical Trial Eligibility Criteria

Clinical trials are eligible if they meet all the following criteria: 

  • Phase I, Phase II, or Phase III clinical trials 
  • Interventional clinical trials with the potential to address unmet patient needs, such as improving/maintaining disease control while reducing side effects and improving quality of life during therapy 
  • Serve patients’ interests with primary endpoints that seek to demonstrate clinical benefit 
  • Include symptom quantification or functional improvement or decline measurements selected with patient input (HRQOL or PRO) 
  • Patient-centric: Applicants must include a patient involvement plan (as defined below) that includes patient partners throughout the clinical trial conception, planning, and implementation 

Basic research, translational studies, and research involving animals are NOT eligible for application.

Patient Involvement in Research

We define patient involvement as the meaningful involvement of patients in developing detection, therapeutic, or symptom management approaches. It encompasses the active, meaningful, and collaborative interaction between patients and researchers across all stages of the research process, whereby research decisions are guided by patients’ contributions as partners, recognizing their specific experiences, values, and expertise. 

We adopt the definition of patient partner provided by Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). PCORI’s definition of patient partners includes patients (those with lived experience), family members, caregivers, and the organizations that are representative of the population of interest in a particular study. 

It is important that patient partners are not confused with trial participants. Patient partners are members of the research team and involved in the planning, conducting, and dissemination of the research, whereas trial participants are individuals enrolled in the study. 

The strategy, modalities, and budgets for patient involvement, related deliverables, and expected outcomes must be included in the grant budget and clearly described in the grant application. Please refer to our funding guidelines for more information. 

Awards

The amount allocated per grant will depend on the number of applications selected for funding. The duration of an award is usually up to five years. Please be aware that RTFCCR usually covers 30% of the total trial costs; therefore, co-funding is requested. 

How to Apply

1) Letter of Intent phase – 29 August to 22 November 2024 

We receive Letter of Intent (LOIs) through our online grant management platform SmartSimple (SmartSimple | Rising Tide Foundation). LOIs will be reviewed by internal staff and advisory board members. The most promising LOIs aligning with this request for proposal topics will be invited to submit a full grant application. 

2) Full Proposal phase – 06 December to 24 January 2025 

Full grant applications are submitted through SmartSimple and reviewed by our Grant Review Committee (GRC), a panel of external experts that conducts a comprehensive scientific review. Each application will be independently analyzed and ranked by scientific peer reviewers, patient experts, and a biostatistician during the GRC. Recommendations made by the Grant Review Committee and RTFCCR Advisory Board will be submitted to the Rising Tide Board of Directors in May 2025 for final funding approval. 

Additional supportive documentation: CVs, clinical trial protocols and charts showing estimated accrual overtime can be uploaded separately to SmartSimple. 

 

 

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