Then and Now
January 21, 2026
From treatments to tomorrows, your generosity has always made the difference for kids.
The first pediatric open-heart surgery. The first baby to be “born twice” after an in utero surgical procedure. The advent of precision medicine, and the promise of personalized, custom therapies.
Then and now, these kinds of developments became medical turning points: catalysts that brought new possibilities to patients, revolutionized health outcomes and inspired future decades of innovation and advances.
Today, Children’s Colorado is on the precipice of many equally powerful discoveries. Your giving helps make all of this possible.
Trailblazing Cancer and Blood Disorder Advances
In 1969, Children’s Hospital Colorado opened its first oncology unit. There were few treatments for pediatric cancer at that time—and no cures. A patient diagnosed with the most common form of childhood cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), had just a 14% chance of survival. That year, five children were treated for cancer at Children’s Colorado.
Only one survived — an 11-year-old boy named Mark.
Mark had been feeling lethargic for some time, and a routine physical to join the Boy Scouts uncovered the cause: something was wrong with his blood. Doctors initially thought he was anemic, but after sending him to Children’s Colorado, he was diagnosed with ALL and became one of the hospital’s first pediatric oncology patients.
Back then, little was understood about leukemia and other cancers. Mark’s therapies were largely experimental because there was no standard protocol for treating kids with ALL. He received blood transfusions, radiation and a new chemotherapy drug —vincristine, now an essential part of leukemia therapy — that had been discovered just a few years earlier.
Mark’s cancer went into remission relatively quickly, and he continued receiving treatment for five years, until he was declared cancer-free at age 16.
Now 67, Mark is grateful for the oncology treatments that were available to him then and is amazed by the progress that’s been made in pediatric cancer diagnosis and treatment. His experience with Children’s Colorado has stuck with him his whole life.
Even though it was a brand-new cancer program, without Children’s Colorado, I wouldn’t be around.
Mark, the first survivor of pediatric cancer to be treated in 1969 at the newly opened Children’s Hospital Colorado oncology unit
Remarkable Progress
Today, 56 years later, more than 90% of children diagnosed with ALL survive.
Children’s Colorado has made remarkable progress in treating and curing blood disorders and cancers—even those once considered untreatable, like Hadley’s.
After Hadley stopped breathing and exhibited seizure-like symptoms when she was 3 months old, doctors discovered that she had an extremely rare brain tumor, a form of infant high-grade glioma with only one other known diagnosis. Doctors believed that Hadley was probably born with the disease.
There were extremely limited options for therapy because of the tumor’s location in her brain, and doctors did not expect her to survive. But after six months at Children’s Colorado, including chemotherapy and intense radiation that was intended only to be palliative and not potentially cure her cancer, the tumor began to disappear.
Five years later, Hadley — now a sweet, smart and spunky 6-year-old — rang the Warrior Bell at Children’s Colorado to celebrate the end of her cancer journey, something that had been a part of her whole life. The powerful radiation she received impacted several physical abilities controlled by the brain stem, including her ability to breathe independently. Today, she uses a bright pink mobilized chair to move and has a tracheostomy tube but is learning to walk and breathe on her own again.
Advances Powered by Your Generous Giving
An infant surviving this kind of cancer is unprecedented, but it didn’t happen by chance. Children’s Colorado experts developed the right treatment plan for Hadley using advances that are powered by your generous giving, including expanded access to genetic testing that identified a unique mutation in her brain tumor. As a result, her treatment and incredible recovery are helping physician-scientists learn more about the way this extremely rare cancer forms and how radiation interacts with the tumor in a baby. This could lead to better treatment options and outcomes for pediatric patients in the future.
At the Children’s Colorado Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, ranked No. 4 in the country by U.S. News & World Report, donors have propelled numerous transformative innovations that have improved and saved the lives of children. Ongoing support from the community has dramatically shaped the way cancer is diagnosed and treated, revolutionizing the field and offering hope for once incurable cancers and blood disorders.
THEN
Before significant advances in the past decade, the most common chronic inherited blood disorders — sickle cell anemia and beta-thalassemia — were treated with pain management and frequent blood transfusions. Life expectancy for patients with these conditions was limited because the severe damage to their bodies couldn’t be stopped.
NOW
Recent research and clinical trials conducted at Children’s Colorado are providing deeper insights into the causes of these diseases, propelling new treatments — and even cures — for patients, along with the chance for long and productive lives.
For sickle cell anemia, misshapen cells get stuck in small blood vessels, causing excruciating pain that can require frequent hospitalization. New FDA-approved therapies replace stem cells that are producing sickle-shaped cells with genetically edited healthy ones, helping several patients experience remission from their disease.
Beta-thalassemia impacts the body’s ability to produce normal hemoglobin, and as a result, patients with this condition, like Patient Ambassador Peyton, often require blood transfusions every few weeks. This blood disorder now also has a new curative therapy that genetically alters patients’ stem cells, allowing them to increase production of hemoglobin, correcting the genetic mutation and curing them of their condition.
THEN
More than 60 years ago, astronaut Neil Armstrong’s 2-year-old daughter “Muffy” died of a rare, highly aggressive brain tumor called diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), which typically occurs in elementary school-aged children.
In the decades that followed, DIPG remained one of the only pediatric cancers in the world for which almost no progress had been made, even as survival rates for many other cancers rose dramatically.
The terminal nature of DIPG is devastating. Because it grows in the brainstem, which controls the body’s most vital functions, DIPG cannot be surgically removed. Radiation gives children additional months with their families, and most children with a DIPG diagnosis are given a life expectancy of no more than a year.
NOW
For the first time in history, a promising treatment for DIPG, and even a cure, is within reach for this lethal brain tumor. After years of studying DIPG — how the tumor works, what the mutation does at its most basic cellular level — The Morgan Adams Foundation Pediatric Brain Tumor Research Program and The Morgan Adams Foundation Pediatric Brain Tumor Lab at Children’s Colorado, led by Rajeev Vibhakar, MD, the Dr. Nicholas Foreman Endowed Chair for Neuro-Oncology Research, and Sujatha Venkataraman, PhD, have developed an antibody that targets DIPG in a highly effective way. Unlike past approaches, this antibody, called 10D1, can harness a child’s immune system to fight their tumor. At its most successful, this therapy could cure this cancer. This breakthrough is happening thanks to generous supporters in the community.
THEN
When Mark was diagnosed with leukemia in the late 1960s, treatments consisted almost entirely of a combination of chemotherapies, many of them only recently discovered. With these new therapies, survival rates increased dramatically. But while the use of multiple drugs helped attack leukemia cells more effectively, these treatments also often came with debilitating, long-term side effects.
NOW
After participating in a global clinical trial, leaders at our Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders and the University of Colorado Cancer Center are celebrating results so transformative that they have changed the standard of care for treating most kids with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), the most common form of childhood cancer.
The new therapy is less toxic than traditional chemotherapy, resulting in significantly fewer side effects, like severe infections, mouth sores and bone marrow suppression, leading to improved quality of life for patients. It also significantly improves three-year disease-free survival for children who have been newly diagnosed with B-ALL.
THEN
Chemotherapy is one of the most common and effective treatments for childhood cancer, but an unfortunate side effect of these drugs is mucositis, a painful inflammation of the mucous membranes lining the mouth and the digestive tract. Mouth sores and ulcers may develop in these areas, which can make eating, drinking and even speaking difficult, and can lead to increased risk of infection. This can create an increased need for pain medication for children, which also comes with side effects.
NOW
At Children’s Colorado, we recently began using a promising new therapy, called Photobiomodulation (PBM), or low-level light therapy, to address the debilitating discomfort of mucositis. PBM is a short and painless therapy in which nurses apply a daily low-level light treatment to the patient’s mouth. Patients receive the one-minute treatment once a day for five days to help alleviate pain and inflammation while promoting tissue repair and regeneration.
Generous donors are supporting efforts to expand access to this groundbreaking treatment across the Children’s Colorado system of care.
The next breakthrough is out there. Not just for cancer, but for other childhood diseases. Thanks to you, across the hospital’s 14 clinical specialties, we are transforming pediatric care.
Cystic Fibrosis (CF)
Cystic fibrosis (CF), once a universally life-limiting condition, now has new treatments that address the underlying cause of disease. In 2024, Children’s Colorado enrolled more patients in clinical trials than 80 other leading centers devoted to CF research. This research has led to dramatic results for kids with CF, like Patient Ambassador Lincoln, including groundbreaking drugs, called cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regular (CFTR) modulator therapies, that improve lung function and reduce the impacts of the disease on patients. Hospitalizations for these patients used to be routine, but Children’s Colorado now goes for weeks without a single CF patient being admitted.
Spina Bfida
Spina bifida can be repaired before birth. Myelomeningocele (MMC) is a severe form of spina bifida that occurs when a baby’s spine doesn’t completely wrap around the spinal cord and leaves an opening that can lead to serious complications, including paralysis. About 25 years ago, surgeons operated on babies shortly after they were born to repair the spinal opening. Today, these surgeries can be performed through minimally invasive fetoscopic procedures in our Colorado Fetal Care Center, dramatically reducing post-birth complications and allowing for life-changing results for these tiny patients.
Epidermolysis bullosa (EB)
Patients with epidermolysis bullosa (EB) have new hope with gene therapies. EB is a rare genetic skin disorder that causes skin to be so fragile that it easily blisters. For decades, the treatment of EB focused almost exclusively on wound care, such as bandaging, to protect the skin from further damage and to help wounds heal. In the past decade, treatment has shifted to topical treatments and targeted therapies, including a recently FDA-approved gene therapy. Children’s Colorado recently announced it was a Qualified Treatment Center for a gene-modified cellular sheet, essentially a “living bandage” for diseased tissue and first-of-its-kind therapy to treat wounds in adult and pediatric patients with recessive dystrophic EB.