(KTVI)-September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Cancer is the leading cause of death for children under 14. Nearly 16,000 kids will be diagnosed with cancer this year.
Over the last 50 years, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis has increased the survival rate of pediatric cancer from 20 to 80-percent.
Richard C. Shadyac Jr. is the chief executive officer of ALSAC, the fund-raising organization of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He said, “We’re not only a hospital where we treat kids but we’re also searching for a cure. So we’re doing research that really no other institution is doing to the magnitude that we’re doing. Just to give you an example… we’re embarked upon the largest study in the Pediatric Cancer Genome in America, where we’re trying to understand the genetic causes of pediatric cancer.”
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is partnering with the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis on the Pediatric Cancer Genome Project. Click here for more information.
