Nonprofit Educational Initiative

Tumor
Tactics

A project bySTEAMLabs International

A nonprofit educational initiative that brings cancer biology to life through strategic, interactive gameplay — empowering students to understand one of the world's most complex diseases.

Transforming Cancer EducationStrategic GameplayScience Made FunNonprofit InitiativeClassroom-ReadyAges 8+Evidence-Based LearningStudent EmpowermentTransforming Cancer EducationStrategic GameplayScience Made FunNonprofit InitiativeClassroom-ReadyAges 8+Evidence-Based LearningStudent Empowerment

Our Story

Built by two students
who needed it first.

Daniel was nine years old when his grandmother, the person who raised him, was diagnosed with stage 3 pancreatic cancer. He spent eight months watching her get weaker in hospital rooms he did not understand. The treatments seemed to be hurting her, and no one explained why. He was too young to know what questions to ask, and no one thought to offer the answers.

Six years later, his grandfather was diagnosed. In the doctor's office that day, Daniel's seven-year-old sister was sitting with the same look on her face that Daniel remembered from his own childhood: trying to understand something impossible with no one giving her the words. So he became the one who gave them. He read the medical reports. He translated the complicated language into something a seven-year-old could hold onto. He gave her what he had once desperately needed.

Zachary grew up on strategy card games and watched his great-aunt go through cancer treatment with the same question: why is there no way for a kid to actually understand what is happening? Together, they set out to build what neither of them had. Not a simplified version of cancer, but a real one, grounded in actual oncology, where players make the same decisions oncologists make and learn the science by living inside it.

150+
students in our first classroom workshop at Deer Canyon Elementary
Ages 8+
K-8 · no biology background needed
10% of proceeds
go directly to the American Cancer Society
Tumor Tactics game components laid out on a table

Tumor Tactics in the Wild

See where we've been →
Tumor Tactics classroom session
Students with game boxes
Students engaging with the game
Students discussing the game
Tumor Tactics classroom session
Students with game boxes
Students engaging with the game
Students discussing the game

Events

Upcoming Events

Get involved →

San Diego County Fair

2026
June 10, 11, 17, 18, and 20, 2026
Del Mar Fairgrounds, San Diego, CA

Join us at the San Diego County Fair, where we'll be showcasing Tumor Tactics to thousands of visitors. Stop by our booth to learn about the game, try a demo, and see how we're making cancer education accessible to students everywhere.

Learn more

Awards and Recognitions

Learn about the game →

Nonprofit Model

Where your money goes

Every kit purchased directly funds the mission.

10%

of all proceeds go to the American Cancer Society to support pediatric cancer research.

90%

goes toward producing free kits for Title I and underserved schools nationwide.

Tumor Tactics is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. All proceeds serve the mission.