Pediatric Cancer Research at NPCF | Driving Breakthroughs

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Sunshine Research Consortium

Conducting Critical Research for Pediatric Cancer

Learn About Our Research

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A child in a medical setting holding an adult's hand, highlighting "Childhood Cancer Facts."

About Our Research

Over 40 leading children’s hospitals across the United States have joined the Sunshine Research Consortium because they believe in our singular mission: to find more effective and less toxic treatments for childhood cancer. The Sunshine Research Consortium has a 15-year track record of conducting novel treatment trials for children whose cancers were not curable by standard treatments. We now find ourselves at a critical juncture: it is clear that childhood cancer is too complex to expect one new treatment to cure all patients, or even to cure all patients with certain cancer types.

To overcome this hurdle, the Sunshine Research Consortium has launched a multipronged assault on childhood cancer from many angles. To find better, less toxic cures, we must:

Better understand the different types of cancer affecting children so we can exploit their weaknesses.
Accelerate the development of novel therapies that can be effective across multiple cancer types.
Understand the best way to use these new treatments alongside existing treatments in intelligently designed strategies to cure patients.
Recognize that novel, “out of the box” approaches to cancer treatment can come from a variety of sources, including hospitals, biotechnology companies, pharmaceutical companies, universities (including ideas generated inside and outside of health sciences departments), and others both within and outside of the United States.

To this end, the Sunshine Research Consortium has created research task forces comprised of leading clinicians, scientists, and young investigators to focus on these difficult to solve problems. Each task force is centered around a specific type of childhood cancer or a specific treatment domain and is charged with performing the best research that most rapidly moves new therapy strategies into clinical trials. Our philosophy openly welcomes new partnerships, whether children’s hospitals looking to join the Sunshine Research Consortium or academic or industry partnerships both within and outside the United States.

– Jonathan Metts, MD & Matteo Trucco, MD, Vice-Chairs of the Sunshine Research Consortium

Our 2026 Research Impact Report

Impact Report

“The Sunshine Project believes the greatest advances in childhood cancer outcomes will be realized when the biggest and most novel treatment ideas are shared and refined openly across traditional institutional boundaries.”

Jonathan Metts, MDSunshine Project Site PI/Vice-Chair

“Without your support, we simply cannot do the innovative research and clinical trials that will improve outcomes for kids with cancer. NPCF is cutting through the bureaucracy and conventional thinking that is slowing down the progress we can make.”

Matteo Trucco, MDSunshine Project Site PI/Vice-Chair

“Curing a child with cancer remains an overwhelming challenge, with some cancers essentially incurable, and many others causing lifelong disabilities. I am so grateful for the existence of NPCF’s Sunshine Project and have personally been able to devote my team’s time more aggressively towards finding more effective, less toxic cures.”

Eugene Hwang, MDSunshine Project Central Nervous System Task Force Leader

“Thank you for supporting the work that we do, as the investigators for the Sunshine Project, to make new discoveries and to bring new treatments to children with cancer. We could not do what we do without help from donors like you.”

Michael Isakoff, MDSunshine Project Site PI/Chair

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