Teen’s Card Game Turns Cancer Into a Learn‑able Challenge, Not a Monster

When Daniel Zhang was four, he sat at a mahjong table with his grandmother in China, laughing as the tiles clacked. Those warm evenings shaped who he would become, he says, “She was the light of my life, the foundation of my values and even my hobbies.”

By fourth grade the family had moved to the United States, and the next summer brought the most bewildering chapter of his childhood: his grandmother was diagnosed with stage‑3 pancreatic cancer. The months that followed were a blur of hospital corridors, hair‑loss from chemotherapy, and a gnawing sense of helplessness. “I kept asking why the medicine that was supposed to help her seemed to make her weaker,” he recalls.

Fast forward a few years. When Zhang’s grandfather received a bladder‑cancer diagnosis, the same dread surfaced on his little sister’s face. Determined to spare her the “big, scary monster” narrative he’d heard whispered around his own kitchen table, he dove into medical journals, questioned his immunologist father, and translated the jargon into kid‑friendly explanations. The grandfather recovered, and Daniel realized there was a gap he could fill for other families.

That realization sparked the birth of Tumor Tactics, a 72‑card tabletop game designed for students from kindergarten through eighth grade. Players become doctors, confronting a trio of tumors—lung, colon and skin—and selecting from cards that represent chemotherapy, immunotherapy and targeted therapy. The mechanics borrow from classic collectible‑card games like Pokémon and Yu‑Gi‑Oh!, but the science stays accurate.

“We wanted a game that felt familiar, yet taught real biology,” Zhang explains. In just one year of development, his team at STEAMLabs International secured a grant from the American Society for Cell Biology, piloted the game with 150 San Diego students, and donated more than 225 decks to Scripps Health and Rady Children’s Hospital.

The impact was immediate. After a summer workshop at Encanto Elementary, 95 % of participants scored higher on a short cancer‑biology quiz, especially on questions about tumor staging and treatment difficulty. “By the end of the session, kids could actually explain why a stage II tumor is tougher to treat than a stage I,” Zhang notes in an ASCB article.

Recognition followed. The game earned a 2026 International Serious Play Award for Higher‑Education Tabletop Games, a finalist spot at the 14th International Educational Game Competition, and a slot at a United Nations Science Summit virtual session. Zhang and his co‑founders are also slated to present at the 2026 European Conference on Games‑Based Learning and the International Conference on Neurology and Brain Disorders.

Beyond the accolades, Zhang—now a senior at Canyon Crest Academy, a researcher at UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, and a former intern at Cambridge’s Cancer Research Institute—remains focused on the kids sitting at the library tables. “If a child can look at a deck of cards and say, ‘I know why this tumor needs chemo,’ that’s a win,” he says, smiling.

With a growing distribution network, plans for digital adaptations, and an ever‑expanding roster of volunteer scientists, Tumor Tactics aims to keep cancer from looming like a monster in the minds of the next generation. Instead, it hopes to turn uncertainty into curiosity, and fear into informed action.