St. Jude Research Hospital By: Courtney Dickey

The Facts Childhood cancer (also called pediatric cancer) typically means a cancer that is found in children and teens, and sometimes young adults. It is not just one disease. There are many types, which can be found in different places throughout the body. Cancer is diagnosed each year in about 175,000 children ages 14 and under worldwide.  Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease past infancy for U.S. children. 

History Danny Thomas wondered if he should give up on his dreams of acting or find a steady job. He turned to St. Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of hopeless causes. “Show me my way in life,” he vowed to the saint one night in a Detroit church, “and I will build you a shrine.” That prayer to St. Jude marked a pivotal moment in his life. Soon after, he began finding work, eventually becoming one of the biggest stars of radio, film and television in his day. And as one of the world’s biggest celebrities, Danny used his fame to fulfill his vow to St. Jude Thaddeus and to change the lives of thousands of children and families. Danny’s shrine to St. Jude Thaddeus was originally to be a general children’s hospital located some where in the south. Danny’s mentor, Cardinal Samuel Stritch, recommended he look to Memphis, Tennessee, the cardinal’s hometown.

History The survival rate for childhood cancers was 20%, and for those with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) — the most common form of childhood cancer — only 4% of children would live.  And for families with children battling these diseases, Danny wanted to remove the burden of treatment costs so they were free to focus on their child.

History

What causes childhood cancer? Environmental Biological The causes of childhood cancer are not completely understood. While adult cancers are usually linked to lifestyle or environmental factors, cancer in children is different in several ways. A child can be born with an increased genetic risk for cancer. For some children, this happens by chance; for others, the risk is passed down from their parents.

Treatment Treatment will vary based on the type of cancer you have. St. Jude specializes in many types of treatment disorders for blood, brain tumor, leukemia and lymphoma, solid tumor programs, bone marrow transplants, and HIV/AIDS treatment.

Variation of Treatments Surgery Radiation Oncology Successfully operating on a child’s growing body requires specialized expertise and experience. Their experts use less invasive procedures to help your child recover faster and with less pain. In addition to top experts in pediatric radiation oncology, St. Jude offers state-of- the art facilities and equipment, including the world’s only proton beam therapy center just for children.

Research One of the world's best “repurposing” collections of FDA-approved drugs. This collection includes the active ingredients from most approved drugs and many developmental therapeutics. These drugs are available to rapidly explore for new uses in treating childhood diseases. A unique small molecule library with more than 800,000 carefully curated, purified compounds. The library is one of the largest at any academic institution and continues to expand. To date, St. Jude chemists have synthesized more than 50,000 of these compounds.  A high-throughput compound screening facility focused solely on generating new treatments for children. The robots—each named by a St. Jude patient—can screen 50,000 compounds for bioactivity per day. An extraordinary culture of collaboration. The St. Jude campus and culture have been deliberately designed to spark connections between clinicians and scientists to give drug discovery projects the greatest chance of real-world success. 

Research At St. Jude’s, the physicians are constantly researching for the next best thing to help save children’s lives. Currently, they are working on the Pediatric Cancer Genome Project at Washington University. With the help of this genome project, the doctors have discovered key mutations that drive the growth of rare brain cancers called low-grade gliomas and glioneuronal tumors. Potential therapies targeting some of these mutations are already being tested in clinical trials. The discovery may also help improve diagnosis of these tumors.

Ways you can help You can volunteer at the hospital. You can play games with the children, work in the cafeteria, or spend time with the children to give the parents a much needed break. You can fundraise money using a variety of ways like door-to-door, signing up with your school, or create your own fundraising session on a website You can participate in the St. Jude Run for Research that happens annually. All money received goes to research and payment for families.

Reference https://www.stjude.org/treatment/disease.html?sc_icid=ct-mm-treatment https://www.stjude.org/about-st-jude/history/how-we-began.html https://www.stjude.org/research/pediatric-cancer-genome-project.html?sc_icid=res-mm-pcgp