Research Grants
Since 2022, D-Feet Cancer has directly funded $430,000 of pediatric cancer research and plans to make another six-figure grant in late 2025 or early 2026 to pass half a million dollars of funded research. These critical grants would not be possible without the trust and generosity of our donors and supporters. Thank you for allowing us to directly fund, and continue to fund, promising research and help kids like Dalton fight this horrible disease.
Dalton’s favorite number is eight. As a salute to our hero, eight cents gets added to the end of each D-Feet Cancer grant donation check. This is just another way D-Feet Cancer strives to keep Dalton and kids just like him at the forefront of everything we do.
2025 Microenvironment Research Funding
D-Feet Cancer funded a $97,500.08 grant to researcher Dr. Christopher Kuo at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles in May of 2025. Dr. Kuo’s research aims to uncover how Ewing Sarcoma tumors interact with and evade the body’s immune system. By studying the tumor microenvironment, an intricate network of cancer and immune cells, this work will shed light on the mechanisms driving tumor growth and resistance. Using advanced mapping techniques and cutting-edge models developed at CHLA, Dr. Kuo will analyze tumor and immune cell behavior in real time. This research could lead to more effective, immune-based treatment for kids, just like Dalton, battling Ewing Sarcoma. To read more about Dr. Kuo’s research and D-Feet Cancer’s continuing partnership with St. Baldrick’s, please click here.
2024 & 2025 BEST Research Funding
In the Spring of 2024, D-Feet Cancer contributed $50,000.08 to fund Better Ewing Sarcoma Treatment (BEST) research led by Dr. Poul Sorensen in Vancouver, Canada. We matched that donation again in the Spring of 2025. Dr. Sorensen and his team are particularly thrilled about their findings concerning a surface protein called IL1RAP, which they discovered is highly expressed on the surface of Ewing sarcoma cells. Targeting this protein with highly specific therapeutic antibody-drug conjugates can hopefully selectively target and kill Ewing sarcoma cells while sparing healthy cells. Dr. Sorensen’s research is also potentially applicable to other pediatric cancers.
Dr. Sorensen works closely with the EPICC research team, described below, to design the antibody-drug conjugates needed to get his antibody into the cancer cell. This synergy between research projects made funding the BEST research a natural next step. You can read more about the BEST research here.
2023 & 2024 EPICC Funding
In January 2023, D-Feet Cancer partnered with the St. Baldrick’s Foundation to fund Ewing Sarcoma research through the Empowering Pediatric Immunotherapies for Childhood Cancer (EPICC) Team. Originally called the Pediatric Cancer Dream Team, this groundbreaking research began in 2013 and was funded by St. Baldrick’s and Stand Up to Cancer. When the Stand Up to Cancer grant expired, St. Baldrick’s decided to continue to fund the EPICC team but needed help.
As an EPICC team partner institution, the University of Pittsburgh is researching ways to specifically target Ewing Sarcoma cell surface receptors. If successful, this specific targeting could lead to treatments that kill Ewing Sarcoma cells while leaving healthy cells alone. St. Baldrick’s rated this research highly but didn’t have funding available. After ensuring that 100% of any potential grant would flow to the researcher, D-Feet Cancer studied the EPICC Ewing Sarcoma research proposal and agreed to partner with St. Baldrick’s. In 2023, D-Feet Cancer provided a $100,000.08 grant to the EPICC Ewing Sarcoma research team and again funded $100,000.08 in early 2024. You can read more about St. Baldrick’s and the EPICC Team here.
2022 Initial Gift
Dalton’s family and friends, affectionately known as Team Dalton, donated over $30,000 to help him fight Ewing Sarcoma over the past year of his life. Shortly before Dalton died in May 2021, both of his parents, Will and Jen, promised D that they would not stop fighting on his behalf. With much help, Will and Jen created D-Feet Cancer to help find better treatments and a cure for Ewing Sarcoma.
The initial donation to D-Feet Cancer, in the amount of $30,000.08 is Team Dalton’s gift to Ewing Sarcoma research. Will and Jen chose Dr. Toretsky and his lab at Georgetown to receive D-Feet Cancer’s first grant primarily for his passion and success in researching Ewing Sarcoma. Dalton enrolled in the TK216 clinical trial during the late summer of 2020. Unfortunately, the new drug wasn’t successful in D’s case. Will and Jen are hopeful that Team Dalton’s gift will help Dr. Toretsky and his team further their research and help current and future Ewing Sarcoma patients beat this awful disease.
