Pediatric cancer is the leading cause of childhood death by disease in developed countries, with more than 200,000 new cases diagnosed each year. Therefore, research is core topic to make progress in curing childhood tumors.

This cause has been joined by 'Cuentos de Nazar', a book created by Alfredo Caballero and Miriam Freire, two authors from Navarre, which will donate the proceeds of its first edition to Niños contra el Cáncer, the solidarity program of Clínica Universidad de Navarra, which fights against childhood tumors.

Niños contra el Cáncer aims to support families so that they can access specific treatments and to promote research, with the goal to defeat childhood cancer. Specifically, the money raised from the sale of this book will go to a project researcher that through the employment of a virus seeks to treat the brain tumor ATRT (atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor), a disease that affects the brain.

"The project we are investigating in this context is the use of a virus, the cold virus, to try to treat the subject ATRT tumor. These are tumors that appear in very young children, under two years of age, and give them very little life expectancy. As they are such young children, they cannot be given radiotherapy, so what we are looking for is to offer a treatment that is not only effective, but also improves the quality of life of these children", acknowledges Dr. Marta Alonso, a researcher at Cima and Clínica Universidad de Navarra, with a special focus on the study of new therapies for brain tumors and principal investigator of this project.

Cuentos de Nazar' tells the story of Nazar, a little angel who goes to Bethlehem and will get the mission statement to talk about his friend Jesus to the children. The book consists of four stories to read with the family and was presented with an exceptional godmother: Mayte García, who has gone through the difficult status of losing one of her triplets to cancer.

"Unfortunately, in Spain, childhood cancer is still considered a rare disease and I think it is necessary for research to continue, otherwise we cannot make progress," acknowledges Mayte. "After suffering a tragedy such as losing a child to a brain tumor, the mission statement that remains as parents is to try to help other children who are still fighting. And for this, the research is fundamental."

This solidarity book is available at available in the Troa bookstores in Pamplona and through its own web page.

Research to cure

To cure, you must first do research. This is one of the premises of the Clínica Universidad and the Cima to continue improving the knowledge of diseases and the search for new treatments that contribute to scientific progress. A research that has achieved that the therapeutic success in some tumors improves from 25% to 75% of the cases.

"Initiatives such as these are fundamental to continue the battle against cancer in children by searching for more effective therapies and facilitating access to specific treatments for affected children," says Marta Lipuzcoa, manager of the Clinic's Corporate Social Responsibility area .

This goal is joined by Niños contra el cáncer, which during its 30 years of existence has financed more than 100 projects.