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Mary Frances Wedekind

A woman, Dr. Mary Frances Wedekind, with brown hair, brown eyes, and freckles stands smiling at the camera.

Dr. Mary Frances Wedekind is committed to improving treatment options for children with rare cancers.

Credit: National Cancer Institute

Assistant Research Physician, Pediatric Oncology Branch at NCI

Between hiking and directing a “circus” of three children, Dr. Mary Frances Wedekind (she/her) studies rare solid tumors and sarcomas in children, adolescents, and young adults. She’s passionate about advancing care for children with rare cancers because there’s often no standard treatment and little knowledge about what therapies work best.

Mary Frances is also the principal investigator for the tiragolumab and atezolizumab (Tecentriq) clinical trial. “This is a very important trial,” she said, adding that the trial offers a unique opportunity to test treatments for these diseases that have been difficult to study in the clinical trial setting. This is a chance for the entire community—including researchers, doctors, patients, and advocates—to share data and collectively learn about these cancers to improve outcomes.

“Coming together is key to truly make differences in these rare cancers,” Mary Frances said. “We would never be able to do this alone.”

CCDI is working to make data from research like Mary Frances’s broadly available to help more young people with cancer.
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