Kudos to Cheryl Rodgers, her Co-PI, Philip Lupo and their entire team for the submission of their NIH R01 application entitled: "Patient Reported Outcomes in Children with Central Nervous System Tumors: Evaluating Symptom Trajectories, the Metabolome, and Risk Profiles". This proposal requests funding for a five-year period with a start date of July 1, 2017. 

Abstract Children with cancer endure up to 15 symptoms during treatment that can profoundly impact their lives leading to: (1) delays or reductions of treatment affecting prognosis, and (2) declines in physical and mental functioning affecting quality of life (QOL). Central nervous system (CNS) tumors are the second most common pediatric cancer but no research has characterized the trajectory of patient reported outcomes (PROs; i.e., symptoms, QOL, and executive function) during treatment. Furthermore, there is growing evidence that biological mechanisms are predictive of symptoms in children with cancer. Metabolites change rapidly in response to physiologic perturbations (e.g., exposure to anticancer agents) and represent proximal reporters of complex phenotypes (e.g., symptoms). Considering these features, metabolomics has been exploited to screen metabolic changes that follow immediately after cancer therapy. The field is open for exploring the relationship between metabolomics and CNS-specific PROs.

The objective of this proposal is to integrate demographic, clinical, and metabolomics data to predict PROs among children undergoing CNS tumor treatment. Identification of patients at risk for adverse PROs will allow the healthcare team to initiate supportive therapies at the beginning of treatment, before patients experience distressing  symptoms and declines in quality of life.