Shane's Future Days

10/02/2026

For the past 30 days, we've taken you inside the science of childhood cancer.

We've introduced you to strange cells, genetic fusions, living models, potential targets, experiments and most importantly: the questions scientists are still trying to answer.

But September was never meant to be the end of the story.

It's the beginning of the conversation.

Because good science needs more than a good idea.

It needs people willing to support the work.

And on December 1, we'll bring our community together for GivingTuesday.

Until then, we'll show you exactly what we're working toward.

🔬 The science continues.

09/30/2026

Today is the last day of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

Every September, I find myself thinking about Shane and the journey that changed our family forever.

Some of you have followed Shane’s story from the beginning. Others may have only learned about him through Shane’s Future Days. And some of you may have seen the posts I shared this month from Children's Cancer Therapy Development Institute, the childhood cancer research organization I help lead.

I shared those posts for a reason.

Because after everything we experienced with Shane, I don't want childhood cancer to simply be something we talk about once a year.

I want people to understand why the science matters.

Shane was diagnosed at 19 months old with stage 4 alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, an extremely rare and aggressive childhood cancer. We were told his chances of survival were about 1 in 10.

He died at 19 months old.

There is no way to make that okay. There is no statistic that can explain what it means to lose your child.

But there is something that gives his story meaning.

Shane's tumors were preserved and turned into a cell line and an avatar mouse model that have been used by researchers around the world to study alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma. Dozens of scientific papers have resulted from research using his tumor cells. And research connected to his cells has contributed to a clinical trial now taking place at children's hospitals around the world.

His cancer helped scientists learn.

His cells are still helping scientists ask questions.

And those questions could ultimately help another child.

THIS IS HIS LEGACY.

This is also why Shane's Future Days continues to support childhood cancer research.

And why I continue to talk about the science.

Because awareness alone doesn't change the biology of a cancer cell. Research does.

We need scientists asking better questions. We need the tools and resources to answer them. We need to understand why these cancers develop, why some tumors respond to treatment while others don't, and how we can develop treatments specifically for children.

I know how easy it is to scroll past another childhood cancer post.

I know the ribbons and statistics can start to feel like background noise.

But behind every statistic is a child.

There is a Shane.

And there are families sitting in an oncology clinic being told something they never imagined they would hear.

I will always wish Shane had been given a different story.

But I am incredibly proud that his story is now part of the science trying to make that possible for someone else.

September may be ending, but the work doesn't.

For Shane.
For the kids fighting today.
For the families who will hear those words tomorrow.

And for the hope that someday, childhood cancer will have a very different story.

09/30/2026

Day 30

Day 30

Awareness is just the beginning.

For 30 days, we've shown you the questions, the science, the people and the work happening behind childhood cancer research.

Now we're asking you to be part of it.

Your donation to cc-TDI helps support the research needed to investigate unanswered questions and pursue new possibilities for children with cancer.

If you've been following the science this month, today is a chance to help support it.

https://cc-tdi.kindful.com/



Thank you for Sciencing-out Childhood Cancer with us. 🔬

09/29/2026

Day 29

Day 29:
We started September by asking you to look at childhood cancer a little differently.
Not just as a disease we need to be aware of, but as a scientific challenge filled with questions we still need to answer.
Thank you for following us into the lab this month.
The questions don't end when September does.
And neither does the work.

Help support the people doing the science.�https://cc-tdi.kindful.com/

09/28/2026

Day 28

Day 28:
We're living in an extraordinary era of cancer science.
Scientists are uncovering the genetic and molecular drivers of cancer at a pace that is opening new possibilities for treatment.
But childhood cancer isn't simply adult cancer in a smaller body.
Children's cancers generally have fewer genetic alterations than adult cancers, and many arise from changes involving normal development or distinctive genetic fusions. Their biology can be fundamentally different.
That means we can't always take what we've learned from adult cancers and expect it to translate directly to children.
Childhood cancer needs its own science.

At cc-TDI, we're using basic science to identify the specific biological drivers of childhood cancers—and then working from those discoveries to develop potential, more precisely targeted therapies.

Understand the biology. Find the driver. Build from there.
That's how we change what's possible for children with cancer.
Sciencing-out Childhood Cancer.
Help support the science https://cc-tdi.kindful.com/

09/27/2026

Day 27

Day 27:

You see the experiments. But behind every experiment are people.

The scientists asking the questions.
The students learning the science.
The collaborators bringing different expertise to the table.
The people working through the unexpected results and figuring out what to try next.

And behind them is a community that believes these questions are worth answering.

Research doesn't happen because of one person or one discovery. It happens because people come together to keep asking, testing and learning.

That's what makes the work at cc-TDI possible.

And that's where you come in.

Your support helps give these scientists the opportunity to keep doing the work.

🔬 Sciencing-out Childhood Cancer



Support the people behind the science.
https://cc-tdi.kindful.com/

09/26/2026

Day 26

Day 26:
What if we stopped trying to make every child fit the same treatment?
At cc-TDI, we start with the biology.
We use basic science to understand what makes a child's cancer unique & then use those discoveries to build, from first principles, new approaches to therapies designed around the biology of that cancer.
That's the promise of bespoke cancer research.
Not one answer for every child.�Better science to help find the right answers for individual cancers.
And we don't do this alone.
With our scientists, families, donors, foundations and community partners, we have the opportunity to push childhood cancer research somewhere new.
Together, we can change history & lives.
🔬 Sciencing-out Childhood Cancer.
Help us keep asking & answering, the questions that could change what's possible for children with cancer.�https://cc-tdi.kindful.com/

09/25/2026

Day 25

What happens when the next experiment is ready, but the funding isn't?

We now have living models of both PAX3::FOXO1 (P3F) and PAX7::FOXO1 (P7F) rhabdomyosarcoma.

The next study is ready to ask what makes these two cancers different & what those differences can teach us.

But this study is currently unfunded.

Pilot funding would allow the scientists needed to carry out the discovery and analysis. And what we learn could benefit children with both P3F and P7F rhabdomyosarcoma.

This is the part of research you don't always see.

Sometimes the question is there.
The model is there.
The science is there.

What’s missing is the funding to do the work.

🔬 Help fund the next question



https://cc-tdi.kindful.com/

09/24/2026

Day 24

This is how research moves forward.

We started by making and studying a living model of PAX3::FOXO1 (P3F) rhabdomyosarcoma.

That work raised another question: what can we learn by comparing it with PAX7::FOXO1 (P7F)?

So we built a P7F living model.

Now that the P7F model is developing tumors, we can begin comparing the two models in ways that weren't possible before.

And there's an important reason to make that comparison: in humans, survival has been better for P3F than P7F rhabdomyosarcoma.

What accounts for that difference?

That's the kind of question one experiment can lead to & the next experiment can help answer.

🔬 Sciencing-out Childhood Cancer.



Support the research that makes the next experiment possible: https://cc-tdi.kindful.com/

09/23/2026

Day 23

Sometimes, the most exciting thing in the lab is when something happens that gives you more questions.

Our recently reported immunocompetent living model of PAX7::FOXO1 rhabdomyosarcoma has begun developing tumors.

That gives researchers an opportunity to study what happens as these tumors develop & to ask questions we couldn't answer before.

What drives tumor formation?
What can this model teach us about PAX7::FOXO1 rhabdomyosarcoma?
And can it help us test new treatment ideas?

The model is working. Now the science gets even more interesting.

This is research happening in real time.

🔬 Sciencing-out Childhood Cancer



Support the research that makes questions like these possible: https://cc-tdi.kindful.com/