Meet Anna Olivia Healey: a brave girl who inspired a new cancer-killing pill.

Born in 1996, she battled neuroblastoma, a rare cancer, since age 4. Despite her courage, she passed away at 9 in 2005.

But that was not the end of the story for her parents.

• Her family set up a charity called A.N.N.A. Fund (Aiding Neuroblastoma and Neuroblastoma Affected) to raise money for neuroblastoma research and support other families affected by the disease. They donated $400,000 to Dr. Linda Malkas, a scientist at City of Hope who met Anna’s father months before she died and was inspired to find a cure in her memory.

(City of Hope is a leading medical center dedicated to research, care, and driving innovations in cancer treatment and other life-threatening diseases.)

• Dr. Malkas and her team spent 20 years developing a molecule that targets a protein called PCNA, which is essential for DNA replication and repair in all cells but is mutated in cancer cells.

• The molecule, named AOH1996 after Anna Olivia Healey (Born in 1996), selectively kills cancer cells by disrupting their normal cell cycle and preventing them from making copies of faulty DNA.

• The pill has been shown to be effective in treating cells derived from various types of solid tumors, such as breast, prostate, brain, ovarian, cervical, skin, and lung cancers (70 different types of cancers). It also does not affect healthy cells or cause toxicity.

• The pill is currently undergoing a Phase 1 clinical trial in humans at City of Hope to test its safety and dosage. The researchers hope that it will be a breakthrough treatment that can annihilate all solid tumors and offer new hope to cancer patients.

NirogGyan | Working towards simple and patient-friendly lab reports.

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