St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising money for childhood cancer research, has awarded a grant of $100,000 to Jonathan Jaques Children’s Cancer Center (JJCCC) at Miller Children’s Hospital. These grants are designated to either help institutions treat more kids on clinical trials (their best hope for a cure) or provide resources to make more research possible.
“After 25 years, the Jonathan Jaques Children’s Cancer Center remains dedicated to helping children with cancer and serious blood diseases through compassionate care, innovative treatments and clinical research,” said Jerry Z. Finklestein, MD, founding medical director, JJCCC. “We’re very grateful to St. Baldrick’s for their continued support. This grant will help JJCCC expand and improve our clinical research program to help children and young adults in our community.”
St. Baldrick’s began as a challenge between friends and has exploded into the world’s largest volunteer-driven fundraising program for childhood cancer research. St. Baldrick’s donors and volunteers made possible more than $15 million in funding for childhood cancer research in 2008 alone; Jonathan Jaques Children’s Cancer Center is one of 28 institutions to receive funding as part of St. Baldrick’s Fall grants which totaled over $2.4 million.
With this funding, JJCCC will be able to actively participate in the Therapeutic Advances in Childhood Leukemia (TACL), a consortium that carries out early studies of new drugs in children with recurrent leukemia. The funding will support a clinical research nurse to launch the TACL program, which will allow JJCCC to work closely with other institutions to rapidly develop, execute and collect data to support expanded clinical trials proposed to the Children’s Oncology Group.
In addition, JJCCC envisions using this grant money to reactivate their participation in a national brain tumor endeavor, performing clinical studies with Phase I evaluations and participate in the Headstart Program that is based at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.
