As in every past event, the proceeds from entry tickets, raffles and auctions will be donated to charity. This year's donations will go to support the PPB Project.

Download the full PPB informational PDF (63KB)

Pleuropulmonary blastoma (PPB) is a malignant tumor of the lung that affects the youngest children, with tumors developing in the first five years of life. Fortunately PPB is relatively rare, but for the children and families who are affected, diagnosis can be devastating. Early detection sets the stage for a cure with surgery and possibly chemotherapy; however delayed detection often ends with tragic consequences.

Rare diseases often receive less recognition and support from governmental and other large granting agencies than diseases which are more common. It often takes decades to learn basic principles about a disease. In stark contrast to many other rare tumors, our understanding of PPB has rapidly expanded in the past 20 years. Often scientists learn while studying rare diseases information that sheds light onto very important processes that occur in other cancer cell types. Based on similarities between PPB and other childhood tumors such as leukemia, brain, kidney and neuroblastomas, we anticipate our research on PPB will improve our knowledge for all pediatric cancer research.

A collaborative team of researchers established the PPB Project several years ago. The PPB Registry has collected the stories from over 300 families aff ected by PPB over the past 20 years. The PPB Genetic Study, started in 2005, recently discovered an important genetic predisposition to developing PPB. This discovery will lead to a blood test that can determine if a child is at risk for developing this cancer. But it will only benefit a proportion of families. Now our sights are set on developing new methods of detecting every child who is at risk and modeling the disease to better understand what makes PPB grow and how to make it stop growing – in other words to find a cure.

For more information, visit ppbregistry.org