Our News
Vilma Tarazona relata cómo perdió a su hijo en 36 horas
Miami, Nov 22, 2015: Vilma relata la historia de la pérdida de Oliver en 36 horas a raíz de una fulminante leucemia, en un documental de Aquí y Ahora, la revista de noticias semanal de Univisión.
Media Reports
Artificial Turf Linked to Cancer?
The Turf War former US National Team star Julie Foudy examines the use of crumb rubber on synthetic turf fields and the 180 reported cases of young athletes (including 65 goalies) who have contracted leukemia…
Scientific Papers
A Cluster Analysis of Pediatric Cancer Incidence Rates in Florida: 2000-2010
Statistics and Public Policy 2014 An Official Journal of the American Statistical Association
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Our Projects
The Oliver Forever Strong Foundation has appointed a panel of scientists to assist in the identification and evaluation of research projects focused on the potential causes of pediatric cancer, and to seek to explain its significant increase in recent years.
In this regard, we are privileged to have the support of:
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| Michael Scheurer, PhD, MPH | Brenda M. Birmann, ScD | Haneen Yasin Abdella, M.D |
Drs. Scheurer, Birmann, Abdella and others still to be named will assist us in the process of establishing a structure and the criteria for the evaluation of project proposals, which will be subject to adjudication after scientific review by qualified peers under sound and properly documented procedures.
Multivariate cluster analysis of (brain, leukemia, lymphoma) incidence rates (adjusted for age and sex) for 2000-2010 in Florida.
One of the Foundation’s key interests is in environmental risk factors for childhood cancers. As such, one priority for research funds will be to support the design of innovative environmental studies of cancer etiology, including spatial and occupational cluster analyses to identify previously undiscovered risk factors for pediatric cancers.
The interest in geospatial analyses is stimulated in part by five studies published recently by the American Statistical Association, the nation’s leading professional association for statisticians (see the full papers under Scientific Research). Of note, in those studies the incidence of pediatric brain cancer, leukemia and lymphoma between 2000 and 2010 in the region of southern Florida close to Lake Okeechobee and Miami (see map) was observed to be 35% to 52% higher than in other parts of Florida.
To fully understand those findings, further studies are needed to examine environmental risk factors that may explain the higher-incidence regions and identify strategies that could diminish risk. Thus, we intend to devote some of the research funding to support well-qualified scientific teams to collect and analyze data that might lead to a better understanding of the driving forces behind these cancers.
For instance, in consultation with the scientific panel regarding current knowledge gaps, in 2017 we launched TheReasonsWhy.Us™ This is a National Registry of Pediatric Cancer Families, where we are actively generating and collecting the epidemiological profiles of pediatric cancer patients for the purposes of scientific research. To date, these data do not exist from sufficiently large numbers of people to broadly interrogate possible environmental causes.
Governance
We are a charitable foundation operating under the umbrella of the Key Biscayne Community Foundation, a registered 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
A Message from Oliver
Childhood Cancer Incidence Over Time (per 100,000)
