Informational Alert

Due to a measles case in the community, please call before coming to Seattle Children’s if you or your child has potential measles symptoms.

High Priority Alert

Masking and Visitation Changes: Due to high rates of respiratory illnesses in our community, we’ve made changes to our masking and visitation guidelines .

Current Research Studies

The Impact of Chemotherapy on Growth Differentiation Factor 15 (GDF15) in Children with Cancer: a Novel Mediator of Childhood Cancer Cachexia

SC-N175: GDF15 in Children with Cancer

  • Condition(s): Brain and Nervous System
  • Phase: N/A

What is the goal of the study?

The main goals of this observational study are to characterize Growth Differentiation Factor 15 (GDF15) levels in healthy children, quantify longitudinal effects of chemotherapy on GDF15 in children with central nervous system (CNS) tumors, and correlate GDF15 to muscle and fat mass. Our central hypothesis is chemotherapy increases GDF15 and correlates to muscle loss and decreased food intake. GDF15 will be measured before and after chemotherapy (day 1 and day 8) at initiation of therapy and repeated 6 months later in a pilot cohort of twenty children with CNS tumors. Body composition will be measured with air displacement plethysmography (BOD POD) to quantify muscle and fat mass prior to treatment initiation and 6 months later.

Who can participate in the study?

Please contact the study team listed below to learn more.

Study Team: