Cal's Angels Advanced Leukemia Clinical and Research Program
Impact Update — July 2025

Thanks to your generous investment, Cal’s Angels Advanced Leukemia Clinical and Research Program provides cutting edge treatments and expert resources for pediatric, adolescent and young adult patients diagnosed with the most complex and challenging leukemias. We are excited to share that, in the past quarter, the program has made significant strides. We have expanded access to targeted therapies, reached more patients and enhanced patient-family support services.

With your partnership, we look forward to forging new paths in leukemia care and research for the children and families we serve.

Delivering Cutting-Edge Clinical Care

From the initial diagnosis to follow-up, our experts work to provide seamless care and find the best possible treatment options specific to each child.

Our team, led by Drs. Jenna Rossoff and Sara Zarnegar Lumley, is experienced in delivering therapies designed to improve survival and quality of life. Through collaborations with national cancer research consortiums and pharmaceutical industry partners, we can offer the very latest leukemia treatments being studied. These include phase 1 clinical trials, which many hospitals do not offer. These early studies are especially important for children with high-risk leukemia as they could offer more effective or less toxic alternatives to existing treatments.

Since April, we have initiated two new Phase 1 trials, and four patients were screened for or enrolled on early phase trials. We also launched our first inter-disciplinary tumor board where we reviewed referred patients to establish a treatment plan and next steps for care.

Several patients who were recently referred to our program include:

A six-year-old originally diagnosed with standard-risk B ALL who was initially managed at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in June 2025. After determining that his disease was Ph+ (a very high-risk feature), he is transferring care to Lurie Children's to enroll in a phase 3 clinical trial.
A 14-year-old who recently completed treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in Vietnam presented to Lurie Children's soon after her arrival to the United States with relapsed AML. She was screened for a phase 3 clinical trial but was unable to enroll given unclear remission status with her initial treatment. However, based on results of in-house genetic testing on her leukemia, she is now receiving treatment with a recently FDA-approved targeted therapy. 
A 20-year-old with relapsed AML that has been refractory to multiple chemotherapy regimens. He came to Lurie Children's for a second opinion and unfortunately was not deemed appropriate for any of our open clinical trials. However, we have continued to work with him to assist in referrals for other early phase clinical trials and help him navigate the insurance-related limitations he has faced.

Key Program Measures
Q2 2025

Building our Team

We recognize that a full spectrum of services—from leading edge medical treatment to compassionate, supportive services—are necessary to ensure our young patients can grow, develop and achieve their full potential. Your commitment will strengthen the level of comprehensive care we provide by allowing us to recruit a psychologist to address the psychosocial impact of cancer.

Mental health interventions delivered by a dedicated psychologist can give children the emotional tools they need to cope with uncertainty, stress and trauma. Whether helping a child process their feelings, guiding them through relaxation techniques or simply offering a safe space to express their fears, psychosocial support is essential to building resilience. Moreover, recognizing the first signs of emotional distress can lead to early intervention to minimize the negative impact on a child and ensure better long-term outcomes.

We are actively recruiting a pediatric psychologist to serve our patients with advanced leukemias and look forward to keeping you apprised of our progress.

Accelerating Novel Research

Research provides new hope for treating and curing some of the most aggressive pediatric cancers. Our specialists are working to deliver novel investigational treatments to patients in the clinic setting and pursuing lab research to better understand the biology of leukemia and how to fight it.   

As the first researcher to benefit from Cal’s Angels funding, Xiaopei “Lily” Zeng, MD, aims to understand how B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) evades targeted immunotherapy including CD19 CAR-T cell therapy. Dr. Zeng is studying how changes in cellular metabolism pathways lead to resistance to CD19 targeted therapy. She has been conducting metabolomic and genomic profiling of patient samples before and after receiving CAR-T cell therapy to identify the factors that contribute to relapse after therapy. Dr. Zeng has completed her metabolomic profiling project and is in the process of data analysis. We look forward to sharing her results in our next update.

We also have opened two new clinical trials:

A Phase 2 study incorporating the immunotherapy agent blinatumomab for infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia with a randomization to receive the novel agent venetoclax, which has thus far not been incorporated into therapy for this very high-risk disease.
A Phase 3 study evaluating the use of blinatumomab in patients with Philadelphia chromosome positive and Philadelphia chromosome positive-like B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia to replace two blocks of intensive chemotherapy to optimize treatment efficacy and decrease treatment-related toxicities.

Making a Difference with Your Support

Cal’s Angels Advanced Leukemia Clinical and Research Program is transforming care for young people diagnosed with aggressive leukemias. We are profoundly grateful for your vision and commitment, which have made this work possible. Thank you for your partnership.