No Two Tumors Are the Same.
Treatment Shouldn't Be Either.
When a child gets cancer, the system asks one question first: What kind of cancer is it?
WE THINK THAT'S THE WRONG FIRST QUESTION.
For decades, childhood cancers have been named and treated by their names. That approach has helped many children. It has also missed many others.
Beat Childhood Cancer was built around what that approach misses, because two children with the same diagnosis can have completely different cancers inside their bodies. What works for one might not work for the other. A cancer name on a chart does not tell you what is actually driving the disease.
The IN:Formation Project was created to answer a different question: What is happening inside this child's tumor, and how can that information help guide treatment?
Through comprehensive DNA and RNA sequencing, expert molecular tumor board review, and the collective expertise of the Beat Childhood Cancer Research Consortium, physicians gain a deeper understanding of each child's cancer—helping guide treatment decisions based on the biology of the tumor, not simply its diagnosis.
Because when you treat cancer by what it is—not just what it is called—you create more possibilities for every child.
Helping Today's Child. Advancing Care for the Next.
When a child enters the IN:Formation Project, two things happen at the same time.
FOR THE CHILD WHO NEEDS ANSWERS TODAY
The tumor is sequenced to better understand what is driving its growth, and the child's cancer is analyzed to understand how it has responded to previous treatments. At the same time, doctors and researchers learn more about the child and family, helping care become more informed, personal, and responsive.
Then a team of specialists, physicians, researchers, and scientists from across the Beat Childhood Cancer Research Consortium reviews everything together. They analyze the findings, reason through them as a team, and build a personalized treatment strategy based on what has been discovered.
From biopsy to treatment recommendations, the goal is approximately three weeks.
FOR THE CHILDREN WHO COME NEXT
The learning doesn't stop when treatment decisions are made.
While today's child is receiving care, researchers continue studying the tumor. They compare what they expected with what actually happened. They learn from successes. They learn from setbacks.
Every outcome strengthens a growing body of knowledge that helps guide future treatment decisions.
A doctor making a decision today benefits from what was learned last month, last week, or yesterday. The next family who enters this system benefits from what we are learning today.
Care happens now. Learning happens continuously.
This is what makes the IN:Formation Project different. It doesn't simply deliver answers for one child. It becomes smarter with every child, helping create more possibilities for the children who come next.
Children with cancer can't wait for the healthcare system to fix itself.
That's why the IN:Formation Project was built differently.
Helping Today's Child. Advancing Care for the Next.
Traditional cancer research moves slowly.
A clinical trial opens. Patients enroll over months or years. The trial closes. Data is analyzed. Results are published. Sometimes it takes a decade before discoveries reach the children who need them.
Children facing cancer today cannot wait years. The IN:Formation Project was built to change that.
Instead of waiting years for knowledge to spread, the system learns from every child in real time. Every tumor that is sequenced contributes to a growing body of knowledge. Every treatment decision adds new insight. Every outcome helps us better understand what may help the next child who enters the system. When one child's tumor reveals something new, that information can help inform treatment decisions for the next child—not years from now, but today.
The IN:Formation Project is more than a test. It is a learning system designed to become smarter with every child it serves, because every child teaches us something. And every lesson learned creates new possibilities for the child who comes next.
By combining comprehensive sequencing, expert review, laboratory research, and a consortium-wide commitment to sharing knowledge, the IN:Formation Project helps identify treatment opportunities that might otherwise go unseen—including existing therapies that may never have been considered based on diagnosis alone. Sometimes it means recognizing that a child's tumor has more in common with another cancer than its diagnosis suggests. Sometimes it means discovering that an existing therapy may be the right match for a child who otherwise had no remaining options.
This is child-informed treatment.
Treating cancer by its nature—not just its name.
That is what a learning system does. It does not stop at the treatment decision. It keeps getting smarter with every child.
Every child teaches us something that advances care and helps create more precise, more informed, and less toxic treatment opportunities for children facing cancer.
Every lesson learned creates more possibilities for the child who comes next.
Better data. Better decisions. Better outcomes.
Participating in the IN:Formation Project will:
provide you and your child's physicians with the most complete tumor information and comprehensive genomic insights.
Gain access to a molecular tumor board who can synthesize powerful insights to help personalize your child's treatment.
Contribute to advancements in less-toxic, more precise, and more effective treatments for solid tumor cancers.
Every Child Adds to What We Know.
Every child who participates in the IN:Formation Project helps create new possibilities—not only for themselves, but for the children who come next.Learn more about the IN:Formation Project, refer a patient, or help create more possibilities for children facing cancer today—and for the children who will face it tomorrow.
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