Facebook Gaming creator and Empyre Esports CEO Ryan Kibbe, also known as “GG Fyre,” teamed up with the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation to host a month of livestream fundraising events. Throughout the month of July, GG Fyre and his sponsors, VRLA Tech and Empire Jerky, committed to raise $15,000 for PBTF’s family support and research programs. Their efforts paid off, raising awareness and donating almost $20K to support pediatric brain tumor kids and their families. After the success of GG Fyre’s livestream, the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation is launching PBTF GameON with a week of charity livestreams (Sept. 25-Oct. 3) that are bringing together more than 70 Facebook Gaming and Twitch livestreamers. Learn more at www.curethekids.org/gameon. “Charity work is a cornerstone of my channel and my community on Facebook Gaming….Now it is time to do something bigger than ever for a cause that is extremely deserving…Something so big that I dedicate[ed] the entire month of July to raising money to cure the kids,” says GG Fyre. “This is a humbling experience for me and a cause that is near and dear to my heart. Thirteen children being diagnosed every day is thirteen too many. Together we can lead the charge against cancer and show these families that we have their back!”

In honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and its “Cancel Kids’ Cancer” campaign, the PBTF announced two new research grants to advance the delivery and impact of targeted drug treatments, affirming its commitment to finding more effective, less toxic treatments for kids battling brain cancer, despite the pandemic. Targeted therapies hold great promise for treating children and teens with brain tumors. Yet, it is critical to determine the most effective way to deliver these therapies with an understanding of the impact they have on the whole child and not just the tumor. The first of PBTF’s latest grants, in partnership with the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), will improve how drug dosing is determined in phase I clinical trials, exploring what factors impact the safe and effective delivery of targeted therapies to a child’s brain tumor. The second project challenges the “gold standard” chemotherapy treatment option (the first-line treatment since 1970) with a targeted MEK inhibitor in a Phase III clinical trial (run by the Children's Oncology Group, the National Cancer Institute-supported clinical trials group). This is the largest and first Phase III trial on record that is targeting the most common forms of pediatric brain cancer, looking for more effective treatment with less long-term functional side effects. “Investing in pediatric brain tumor research has never been more important, especially as COVID-19 has threatened the resources many researchers had access to before the pandemic. The Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation’s investments across all phases of research and scientific discovery are accelerating the number of life-changing therapies moving from development to clinical trial to commercialization,” says Courtney Davies, PBTF President and CEO.