At 4-months old, Maddie Pagel was diagnosed with choroid plexus carcinoma (CPC), a rare and aggressive pediatric brain cancer that had spread down her spine and into her spinal fluid.

She had surgery to remove the primary tumor, followed by 12 rounds of chemotherapy, which put the cancer into remission. But nine months later, the tumors returned and spread. This time her cancer, which had a poor prognosis and no known cure, was resistant to three different chemotherapy protocols.

Doctors at Spectrum Health’s Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan, told Maddie’s mother, Tracy, to put her daughter in hospice care …

To discover what happened next, watch the video or click below to read the full article.

Nearly 70,000 young adults are diagnosed with cancer in the United States each year. But despite advances in early detection, treatment, and prevention, there’s been no improvement within the last 30 years in survival rates for this age group. In fact, the gap between the survival rates of young adults and those of cancer patients in other age groups is widening.

Here's why: childhood cancers are fundamentally different. Since the driving genetic mutations in these malignancies are different from those affecting adults, a specific and comprehensive pediatric cancer panel was needed for the advancement of research.

In this video, you'll hear how Dr. Timothy Triche, the Founding Director of the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Center for Personalized Medicine, used Oncomine Solutions to develop a new research test to better understand childhood cancers.