Chase After A Cure

Chase After a Cure (CAAC) was started in 2009 by Summerville, S.C., resident Whitney Ringler and her family after her son, Chase, was given a 30 percent chance of survival after being diagnosed with Stage 4 neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nerve tissue of the sympathetic nervous system. Chase survived this aggressive form of cancer and now his family works tirelessly on behalf of childhood cancer research.

Through various fundraising efforts, CAAC continues to fund innovative research and promising clinical trials that have the potential to immediately impact the lives of pediatric cancer patients.

Since its founding, CAAC has awarded more than half a million dollars to pediatric cancer research at the Medical University of South Carolina Children’s Hospital. Cancer is the No. 1 cause of disease-related death among children. About 13,500 children between birth and age 19 are diagnosed with cancer each year. Just at the Medical University of South Carolina, about 70 children are diagnosed with pediatric cancer annually.

In 2016, CAAC expanded its mission to fund all varieties of pediatric cancer research through a new grant request application process.

Compared to adult cancer, childhood cancers are rare. Even though childhood cancer incidence rates continue to increase slightly each year, they still represent less than 1 percent of all new cancer diagnoses. That means funding for childhood cancer research is limited. In particular, neuroblastoma – which has one of the lowest survival rates – receives very little attention because the population base with this form of cancer isn’t profitable enough for pharmaceutical companies to develop new treatments.

While childhood cancer may impact a smaller population, it impacts the young lives of those diagnosed at 100 percent.