As of: March 30, 2024, 2:06 p.m
By: Sandra Sedlmaier
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Foundation members and supporters (from left): Managing Director Kai Pierre Thieß, Board member Dr. Yvonne Princess of Croÿ, patron Dr. Tatiana Princess of Bavaria, Chairman of the Board Dr. Gerhard A. Brandl and Chairman of the Board of Trustees Prof. Stefan Burdach. © private
When children get cancer, their chances of recovery are now relatively good, but the therapy is strenuous, full of side effects and often associated with dire consequences for their lives. The Cura Placida Foundation, based in Berg, has set itself the goal of improving cancer treatments for children.
Farchach
– The name is the program. “Cura Placida” is Latin and means gentle healing. Prof. Stefan Burdach, who grew up on Lake Starnberg and has lived in Farchach since 2003, knows even more meanings of the Latin adjective placida: “Gentle, friendly, gracious, thus showing appreciation,” he adds. He wishes such a healing for all children suffering from cancer. So far, the reality is largely different, but thanks to the commitment of the Cura Placida Foundation, remarkable research results have already been achieved.
Since its founding in 2011, Cura Placida has been able to invest 200,000 to 500,000 euros per year in child cancer research, according to the foundation's chairman, Dr. Gerhard Brandl says. “Our donors know that every euro goes to research without any deductions.”
In 2009, Burdach, now 71, won a rich science prize. At that time, he says seriously, he decided not to buy an old Aston Martin, but rather to do something really useful. Burdach knew from his daily work as a pediatrician and then chief physician at the Munich-Schwabing Children's Hospital that there was little money for pediatric cancer research. Brandl worked in the pharmaceutical industry and knew the problem from the other side. “The area of pediatrics is too small, the research is not worthwhile for the pharmaceutical industry,” says Brandl. That's why Burdach took the prize money and, together with his brother Michael Burdach, a successful entrepreneur, and Brandl, founded the Cura Placida Foundation to raise money for childhood cancer research from private sources.
“We can certainly cure children of cancer, but the treatment is a walk through hell,” says foundation councilor Burdach about his motivation. Brandl specifies: “Health is always expensive for children with cancer.” Chemotherapy or radiation therapy also damages healthy cells, and surgery is often accompanied by mutilations. “The children often suffer from the side effects for the rest of their lives,” says foundation board member Brandl. “They often cannot have children or have a physical or mental handicap.”
Adults can often reduce the risk of cancer through a healthy lifestyle, says Burdach. “For children, cancer is the catastrophe of growth, an industrial accident during growth, a stroke of fate.” Bone cancer is one of the most common cancers in children. “When a bone experiences a prepubertal growth spurt, it is a highly complex process – the operation of a nuclear power plant is a pony farm in comparison,” describes the expert. “If there is a reading error, growth is uncontrolled.” And the child develops cancer.
Some research successes have already been achieved through the financial support of Cura Placida. “We support research that finds the Achilles heel of the disease,” says Burdach. And then they try to develop precision therapies, so-called “targeted therapies”. A research success achieved in Munich in collaboration with Vancouver is the genetic training of immune cells. “These can then specifically destroy the cancer cells,” explains Brandl.
Another success is the discovery of how leukemia cells protect themselves against the metabolic stress of unrestrained growth. “The insight into this anti-burnout mechanism provides new approaches for targeted interventions in the metabolism of leukemia cells,” says Burdach. This would allow the undesirable effects of untargeted genetic changes in many leukemia drugs to be avoided.
Cancer research in general also benefits from the successes in childhood cancer research, emphasizes Burdach. “In children there are few changes in the genetic makeup of the cancer cells. The so-called driver gene that causes cancer to grow can be found very easily.” In adults, however, this driver gene is hidden among many others and the search for it is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
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The foundation has many supporters, including the doctor Dr. Tatiana Princess of Bavaria, who is the patron. The Tutzinger pediatric pulmonologist Prof. Carl-Peter Bauer is a board member. Burdach, who has also taught and worked in the United States and Canada, is always amazed at how much private money goes to children's hospitals in the United States. “Here we can learn something from America,” he says, recalling the word gracious, which also means placida. “When you get involved with children, you do something for your karma.”
Cura Placida
is a foundation dedicated to child cancer research based in Berg. Further information, such as supporting membership, is available at curaplacida.org. The foundation's account at Stadtsparkasse München has the IBAN DE21 7015 0000 0000 5330 00.