Using Artificial Intelligence to Improve Diagnosis and Treatment for Kids with Cancer

What is artificial intelligence? Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology that can simulate human intelligence characteristics including learning, predicting, analyzing, and deriving solutions using data. AI was first defined in 1956, but the use of the technology was limited through the early 2000s due to poor computer performance and other economic factors. In the 2010s,…


Colorado researchers receive international recognition for groundbreaking kids’ cancer research at ISPNO 2022

More than a dozen doctors and researchers from the Morgan Adams Foundation Pediatric Brain Tumor Research Program were invited to present their work at the largest global conference in pediatric neuro-oncology. The 20th International Symposium on Pediatric Neuro-Oncology was held June 13-15 in Hamburg, Germany. ISPNO is the major global meeting for the international community…


artma 2022 Kid Art

artma exists because there are kids with cancer who are fighting every day to survive. For each artma, Patricia Mowry, the Creative Arts Therapist at Children’s Hospital Colorado, coordinates an art project with kids in treatment in the Pediatric Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders. This year, 20 kids, teens, and young adults participated by creating a…


May is Brain Tumor Awareness Month and You Can Help Kids with Cancer!

May is recognized nationally as Brain Tumor Awareness Month (BTAM) each year. It is a time to raise awareness of the devastating impact of a brain tumor diagnosis, on the individual, family, and larger community. Brain cancer accounts for about 15% of pediatric cancers. Brain and CNS tumors are the second most common type of…


A Note of Encouragement from a Cancer Mom

A Note of Encouragement from a Cancer Mom Written by Sarah Mersdorf-Foreman, Levi’s mom The other day, I took on the task of cleaning out the hallway medicine/medical supply closet (aka the family-owned pharmacy). This froze me.     This is the type of needle that was used weekly to access Levi’s port for his…


Just $16 in their bank account

November 6, 2020 I received an urgent message this week about a family whose child was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year and needs help with their bills: A young couple and their son Alexander moved to Colorado in July after Alexander’s grandma had a massive heart attack. The family used all their savings to…


Levi had to leave home for cancer treatment. Today, he’s healthy and home with his family.

Levi was two months into Kindergarten when he started throwing up 1 to 2 times a week. His pediatrician said Levi had the flu, but later that month, Levi’s left eye started to cross. Levi’s mom felt that the throwing up and eye-crossing were related and asked her friend, an optometrist, to take a look…


Morgan had a 5% chance of survival when she was 15. She turns 31 this November.

Morgan had a 5% chance of survival after being diagnosed with cancer when she was a junior in high school. An experimental treatment saved her life. Morgan was 15 years old when a mass the size of a softball was found low in her pelvic cavity. Here’s what Morgan has to say about her cancer…


Morgan made me a mom 28 years ago today

On July 30, 1992, Morgan Courtney Adams was born, healthy and destined to make her mark on the world. She was the first of our three children. Of all the things Steven and I imagined for Morgan and her life to come, cancer was never one of them. Watching Morgan endure the seemingly endless painful…


Colorado researchers taking two-pronged approach in search for new AT/RT cancer treatments

Generally, there are two ways to discover a new cancer drug: You can use basic science to discover a cancer’s Achille’s heel and then find or build a drug that exploits it, or you can try a bunch of drugs on cancer cells and see what works. Think of the basic science approach as building…