FDA approves trial of drug funded by Zev’s Fund

Zev Wolff, 9, a Woodmere resident, was diagnosed at age 3 with neuroblastoma, a rare childhood cancer. In addition to radiation and surgery, he was treated with multiple rounds of chemotherapy. After nine months of treatment he was put into remission. A year and a half later, however, he relapsed and once again had to be treated. When Zev’s body rejected the drug that was necessary to keep him in remission, his family and friends united to raise money for a new drug, one that he would be less likely to reject, to help combat the disease.
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center recently announced that the Food and Drug Administration had approved initial clinical use of the humanized antibody referred to as Hu3F8. The clinical trial of the new drug began 3 weeks ago. It is currently being given to a majority number of children afflicted with neuroblastoma. Many children had developed a resistance to an earlier, “non humanized” version of the drug. Hu3F8 will be used as an adjunct to chemotherapy because chemotherapy alone doesn’t always destroy the cancer. Much of the funding for the development of the new drug came from Zev’s Fund, which was started in late 2007 by Rabbi Hershel Billet, Dr. Asher Mansdorf, Elliott Platt, Peter Steinerman and Joe Steinfeld.
“The effort began when a group of twenty parents of children with neuroblastoma, desperate for more treatment options, decided that they would begin funding the research and development of a new drug.” said Dr. Ranan Wolff, Zev’s father, “We rose to the challenge to make this happen and with the help of the world wide community we funded $1.2 million of for the approximately $3 million needed to bring this new treatment to the clinic”