Where Hope Lives
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On a quiet street, a porch light glows against the evening sky. Inside, a research coordinator makes one last check before tomorrow’s clinical trial update. On the sidewalk outside, the word HOPE glows in bright chalk—left by a child home from a scan with good news. As night deepens, a scientist across town bends over lab samples, searching for the clue that could spark the next breakthrough.
These moments are part of something larger: a neighborhood without borders, built on determination, compassion, and discovery.
This is where hope lives.
The Neighborhood of Discovery
Childhood brain tumors are the leading cause of cancer-related death in children, and progress has been far too slow. But across the country, families, clinicians, and scientists are transforming ordinary spaces—labs, hospitals, classrooms, and homes—into places where breakthroughs begin.
The Children’s Brain Tumor Network (CBTN) connects them. Thirty-five institutions around the world share data, biospecimens, and expertise through CBTN, creating the largest open-access pediatric brain tumor resource in history. This collaboration breaks down silos and makes it possible for discoveries in one lab to benefit breakthroughs in another—and children everywhere.
Behind Every Breakthrough
Hope is built choice by choice, action by action.
It’s the researcher who knows that one dataset isn’t enough—but thousands together can reveal patterns no one has ever seen before. It’s the clinician who joins a global call to compare data on how to treat a rare tumor because saving one child isn’t enough when so many more are still waiting. It’s the family who, in the middle of uncertainty, chooses to share their child’s data and story—turning personal courage into collective progress.
CBTN makes these choices matter.
- More than 60,000 biospecimens, paired with clinical and genomic data, are available to scientists around the world.
- Dozens of institutions have committed to open collaboration, ensuring discoveries don’t stay siloed in one lab or one country.
- Hundreds of studies and publications have been powered by this shared resource—evidence that working together changes the pace of discovery.
Every chart reviewed, every sample processed, every line of code written by a data scientist carries us forward. Together, these steps bring us closer to new answers—and to a future where children with brain tumors have better options and brighter tomorrows.
Faces of Hope
Hope is found in persistence; the late nights and careful notes that move science forward.
It’s in collaboration; colleagues comparing results across continents to bring answers faster.
It’s in generosity; families who give, even in unimaginable difficulty, so others can have a brighter future.
These moments, repeated across labs, hospitals, and homes, build the momentum for true progress.
This Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, we honor the people and places that give hope a home. Not in distant labs or rare moments, but in neighborhoods and communities just like yours.
Hope lives here. And you can be part of it.