“Our goal is that every kid who walks through the door will grow up and become a healthy, productive survivor and adult.”
–Lia Gore, MD
The Ergen Family Endowed Chair in Pediatric Oncology
Chief, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/Bone Marrow Transplant
Leaving No Stone Unturned
Growing up in Boulder, Colorado., Imogene was an active child who loved biking and skiing. But in middle school, her health began to decline. She experienced extreme fatigue, frequent fainting and unexplained pain. After months of uncertain diagnoses, Imogene was referred to Children’s Colorado, where a team of specialists began to piece together the complex puzzle of her symptoms.
It was at Children’s Colorado that Imogene was diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a condition that affects blood flow and can cause dizziness and fainting. Her doctors also discovered she had dangerously low iron, a blood disorder often treated in the CCBD.
Imogene’s care team, including pediatric specialists from numerous departments, implemented a personalized treatment plan that helped her regain strength and stability. Through it all, she found not only expert medical care, but a community that made her feel seen, heard and valued. Now a pre-med student at UCLA, Imogene returns to Children’s Colorado regularly for appointments — and to give back. She volunteers in the hospital’s T(w)een Zone, organizes art activities for patients and is currently working alongside pediatric oncologists in the CCBD.
At our in-house precision medicine lab, we offer genetic testing that can help us confirm a child’s diagnosis, better understand their prognosis, identify rare cancers and more. Here, we’re not just offering the latest treatments, we’re driving the next generation of cures. With greater insight and understanding, we help limit disruptions to patients’ lives and get them back to being kids.
Patient Ambassador, Imogene
“My doctors have been diligent and inquisitive. They’ve given me my life back. I want to be the doctor who leaves no stone unturned,” she said. “Children’s Colorado showed me what that looks like.”
Advancing the Future of Care
At Children’s Hospital Colorado, we’re committed to improving the quality of life for children with cancer and blood disorders by providing personalized care. Our Precision Medicine Institute allows us to create highly personalized treatments targeted to treat each child’s disease based on their unique genome. Precision medicine treatments have been proven to improve survival rates, reduce side effects and lower risks of complications.
At our in-house precision medicine lab, we offer genetic testing that can help us confirm a child’s diagnosis, better understand their prognosis, identify rare cancers and more. Here, we’re not just offering the latest treatments, we’re driving the next generation of cures. With greater insight and understanding, we help limit disruptions to patients’ lives and get them back to being kids.
Since the Precision Medicine Institute launched in 2023:
• Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) became available in September 2024, expanding our ability to detect previously undetectable variants
• Quarterly WGS volume grew from less than 200 samples to more than 1,500, with urgent cases now processed in days rather than weeks.
Shifting into Survivorship
In the HOPE Program’s 30-year history, more than 2000 patients have been treated.Open to learn more
Each year in the United States, more than 15,000 children are diagnosed with cancer. Globally, that number is greater than 300,000. Despite this harrowing statistic, there is good news: our cancer therapies, treatments and outcomes continue to improve. In the 1960s, only about 5% of children survived leukemia. Today, that number is 90% or better. Many more pediatric oncology patients are now transitioning into survivors of childhood cancer and can achieve their hopes and dreams as adults.
The Children’s Colorado HOPE Cancer Survivorship Program is the first and one of the longest-running survivorship programs in the nation. Leading that charge is Jenna Demedis, MD, who specializes in pediatric hematology and oncology. The HOPE Program, which stands for Helping Oncology Patients Excel, helps childhood cancer and bone marrow transplantation survivors of all ages live fuller, healthier lives.
Dr. Demedis and others collaborate with primary care providers, training them on the nuances of working with childhood cancer survivors and facilitate formal transitions when patients require adult care. As the only pediatric cancer survivorship program in Colorado and the surrounding states, the impact of this work continues to be essential and remarkable.
Red Light Therapy
Reducing the side effects of treatmentOpen to learn more
Children’s Colorado recently began using a promising new therapy called Photobiomodulation Therapy (PBMT), or low-level light therapy, to address the debilitating discomfort of mucositis. Mucositis is a painful inflammation and ulceration of the mucous membranes lining the digestive tract, commonly caused by cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation. PBMT is a short and painless therapy in which nurses apply a daily low-level light treatment once a day for five days to help alleviate pain and inflammation while promoting tissue repair and regeneration.
3,500+ inpatient PBMT treatments delivered
~200 outpatient treatments delivered since Jan 2026
Largest pediatric PBMT program of it’s kind in the U.S.
Philanthropy is supporting efforts to expand access to this groundbreaking treatment across the Children’s Colorado system of care.
2025-2026 U.S. News & World Report Rankings
#4
National ranking of the CCBD at Children’s Colorado
#1
Children’s Hospital in Colorado and the region
$1.1 Million from Hogs for the Cause to Create a Centralized Cell Bank for the
Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders
Hogs for the Cause, a Louisiana-based organization that supports families affected by pediatric brain cancer, contributed $1.1 million to establish a sophisticated centralized cell bank – the Hub of Genetic Specimens (H.O.G.S.) BioBank in the CCBD.
The H.O.G.S. BioBank will centralize pediatric oncology tissues and blood samples that will assist Children’s Colorado’s physician-scientists in making critical advances in childhood cancer and blood disorder research by linking these biospecimens to clinical, treatment and outcome data. In addition to caring for children with proven treatment protocols, our pediatric faculty are at the forefront of discovering new therapies.
“Hogs for the Cause is dedicated to helping children fight brain cancer while also supporting their families. With this gift, we could not be more grateful to join the large grassroots fundraising community that makes up Hogs for the Cause. This generous gift will not only impact how we care for our patients, but it will also help accelerate research initiatives on our campus and create a resource for other leading cancer researchers around the world with whom we collaborate,” said Jennifer Roe Darling, President and CEO, Children’s Hospital Colorado Foundation.
Children’s Colorado already has one of the largest biobanks of pediatric brain and spinal cord tumor samples in the nation, and the gift from Hogs for the Cause will further scale and centralize our entire biospecimen collection across different diseases to foster cross-collaborations and interactions that will lead to better treatments and better cures.
The Tanabe-Bobrow Family Young Investigator Award
Discoveries from our laboratories at CCBD are changing the way care is delivered in the fields of pediatric hematology, oncology and bone marrow transplantation. Our researchers are national leaders in basic and clinical science research, trailblazers in using clinical trials to develop new therapies for all types of cancer, advanced bone marrow transplantation and innovative cell therapy techniques. Philanthropic support has made a demonstrable difference in our ability to make these much-needed medical breakthroughs.
Arlene Bobrow and Charles Tanabe made their first $100 gift in 1992 in support of the Children’s Fund and over the past 10 years their philanthropy has evolved to support attracting and retaining nationally recognized researchers through the Tanabe-Bobrow Family Young Investigator Award and funding a Research and Innovation Scholar Award (RISA) and a Research Pilot Award. Together with investments in research by Children’s Colorado, this funding is helping change the course of disease and drastically impacting lives, fueling the prospect of a brighter future for kids with cancer through research, discovery and innovation.
Ihme Foundation
In 1985, Rich Ihme, a Children’s Colorado patient, passed away after battling leukemia. This experience led family members to create the Ihme Foundation.
Since 2003, the Ihme Foundation has hosted an annual golf tournament that has raised over $582,000 in support of cancer research at Children’s Colorado. The 2025 tournament allowed the Foundation to contribute nearly $78,000 in funding to this important research. On Friday June 12, the Ihme Foundation will once again host the Ihme Foundation Golf Tournament.
Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF)
When she was just 4 years old, Alexandra “Alex” Scott hosted a lemonade stand raising $2,000. Alex was battling neuroblastoma and wanted to donate the money to help doctors find cures for all children battling cancer. Over the past 20 years, Children’s Colorado has received over $970,000 in support from ALSF including patient aid, support for the bone marrow transplant department and pediatric cancer therapeutics, including two gifts totaling $20,000 in 2025.
Investments like those from ALSF and the Ihme Foundation helped Children’s Colorado physicians research a new treatment protocol for the most common form of childhood cancer that has rapidly changed how doctors treat pediatric leukemia – and provided a first-in-decades boost for the long-term survival and health of young patients.
“This happens once in several generations,” said Lia Gore, MD, Ergan Family Endowed Chair in Pediatric Oncology and Chief, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/Bone Marrow Transplant. “We’ve now moved this outcome so that most children with this type of leukemia will have a 96% cure rate. The findings were the most significant advancement in the field since at least the early 1970s.”
The breakthrough is called blinatumomab, an immunotherapy drug delivered to patients over a 28-day IV drip. Its success not only improves survivor rates but also cuts down on the need for toxic treatments like chemotherapy, which can have life-altering impacts for patients who beat the disease. “If I have a 3-year-old who’s being treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and they develop a lifelong toxicity and side effects, we might be talking about 80 years of that,” Dr. Gore said. But blinatumomab will mean less chemotherapy and other intensive treatments and will in turn lessen the long-term quality of life costs of beating leukemia.
Hyundai Hope on Wheels (HHOW)
Since 2006, HHOW has supported 22 unique researchers and physician scientists through 30 awards, investing more than $6.1 million in innovative research and discovery.
Thanks to a 2023 grant received from Hyundai Hope on Wheels, Vanessa Ann Fabrizio, MD, MS, a Children’s Hospital Colorado bone marrow transplant and cell therapy physician, is investigating ways to improve outcomes of patients treated with CAR-T cell therapy.
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has transformed therapeutic options for patients with relapsed/refractory pre-B-ALL, a fast-growing blood cancer that has not responded to initial treatment. However, despite initially experiencing an encouraging response to traditional therapies, an estimated 40% to 50% of responders relapse after CAR-T cell therapy. Dr. Fabrizio and her team are researching ways to make CAR-T cell therapy last longer and work better. By studying the health and type of a patient’s T cells right when they are first collected—before they are engineered in a lab—they hope to see which types of cells create the most effective, long-lasting treatment, especially for patients with complex, varied cancer types.
A Children’s Colorado patient just became the 50th person to receive CAR-T cell therapy in this clinical trial led by Dr. Fabrizio. This Phase 1 study is open to patients with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) who have relapsed or whose disease didn’t respond following chemotherapy or bone marrow transplants. This milestone offers hope for leukemia patients, thanks to the innovative efforts of Dr. Fabrizio, her team and the collaboration across the University of Colorado and Children’s Colorado. Dr. Fabrizio’s research is one example among many research projects funded by Hyundai Hope on Wheels that are providing hope to patients and families.
Because of you, hope is breaking through.
In 2025, donors contributed more than $13 Million in support of 70 different pediatric cancer related funds in the CCBD at Children’s Colorado.
Thank you!