Seeding Hope: How Rally Helped Spark a Life-Saving Neuroblastoma Drug

At Rally Foundation, we believe that one discovery can change everything — and sometimes, all it needs is a seed.

From 2008 to 2015, we served as philanthropic seed investors in the work of Dr. Jackie Kraveka at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). With early, critical funding from Rally, Dr. Kraveka led groundbreaking preclinical studies focused on a tough childhood cancer: neuroblastoma.

Neuroblastoma is a cancer that starts in immature nerve cells, most often in the adrenal glands, and usually strikes babies and young children. It’s aggressive, and high-risk cases are especially hard to treat. Even when treatment works, the cancer often comes back.

That’s where Dr. Kraveka’s research made a difference. Her work helped lay the foundation for what would become a game-changing FDA-approved drug: DFMO (difluoromethylornithine). In 2024, DFMO was approved by the FDA as a maintenance therapy to help prevent relapse in children with high-risk neuroblastoma — giving kids a better chance not only to survive, but to stay cancer-free.

This is exactly why early-stage research funding matters. Before federal dollars or pharmaceutical companies step in, it’s often philanthropy — people like you — that take the first risk. Rally’s investment in Dr. Kraveka’s research is proof that when you plant the right seeds, hope takes root.

Because of our donors, we were able to take a chance on promising science — and that chance became a breakthrough.

This is the power of people.

This is the power of purpose.

This is Rally.