Fondazione Monza e Brianza per il Bambino e la sua Mamma Onlus

“I never thought that exercise could be fun and useful. Especially for us vulnerable kids, I thought it was a useless thing and it was better to focus on something else. I was wrong.”

L.K., 16 years old, transplant recipient and iconic athlete of the Sport Therapy research project.

The Clinica Pediatrica of the Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca, directed by Prof. Andrea Biondi, is run by the non-profit Fondazione Monza e Brianza per il bambino e la sua mamma (FMBBM). It was established in 2005 as a result of the integration between public and private institutions, located within S. Gerardo, the general hospital in Monza.

The Haemato-Oncology Unit and the Transplant Centre of the Paediatric Department are located in the Centro Maria Letizia Verga, a new 4-story building where treatment research, care and psychosocial activities are combined. This Centro was constructed, financed, and sought after by the Comitato Maria Letizia Verga, a parent association that for 42 years has had the objective of offering highly specialized care to children, adolescents, and young adults diagnosed with leukaemia and lymphoma. They achieve this through a therapeutic alliance between doctors, researchers, parents, and volunteers, all with the scope of guaranteeing higher chances of cure and better quality of life. Approximately 90 new cases of leukaemia and lymphoma are diagnosed and 30-40 hematopoietic stem cell transplantation are performed each year. The Department is an accredited centre for phase I clinical trials with experimental drugs as well as for the CART-T program, for which multiple company-driven and academic trials are ongoing.

All patients and their family’s needs are considered and they are provided with cancer treatment as well as receiving care for the emotional burden suffered. The Hospital School is an integral part of our children’s rehabilitation where the youngsters feel safe, happy and encouraged to continue with their learning.
In 2017, the ultimate dream was realized, a gym dedicated to the Sport Therapy research program was inaugurated. There more than 500 children, adolescents, and young adults could feel the promise of cure: active participation in sports sounded like the promise of a new life, beyond any chemotherapy, transplantation or CAR-T treatment.

Role in FORTEe: In addition to its health care mission, FMBBM has an outstanding research environment to carry out research projects in the field of paediatrics and has a great experience in managing multicentre and international clinical studies in haemato-oncology practice and research. FMBBM will lead the work package “Clinical Study” of the proposal (WP3).  Accordingly, FMBBM will be partner in the ethical assessment of the research design and protocol as envisioned in the WP “Ethics and legal issues” (WP2) of FORTEe’s research program. Communications regarding the FORTEe findings will be disseminated/exploited by all partners, including FMBBM, accordingly to the WP6. In addition, FMBBM will be involved in the testing of novel Technology Applications’ in WP4.