 |
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, founded by the late
entertainer Danny Thomas, maintains 60 inpatient beds and treats about
180 patients each day, about 4,700 in active status, most of whom are
treated on an outpatient basis. |
|
It is the first institution established for the sole purpose of
conducting basic and clinical research into catastrophic childhood
diseases, mainly cancer. St. Jude is the largest childhood cancer
research center in the world in terms of the number of patients enrolled
on research protocols and successfully treated. |
| St. Jude has treated children from all
50 states and from more than 80 foreign countries. |
| Research findings at St. Jude are
shared with doctors and scientists all over the world. St. Jude
also enjoys a worldwide reputation as a teaching facility. The
medical and scientific staff published about 454 articles in academic
journals in 2003. |
| St. Jude is the only pediatric research
center where families never pay for treatment not covered by insurance,
and families without insurance are never asked to pay. |
| St. Jude continues an extensive
expansion program to bolster the hospital's research and treatment
efforts, while more than doubling the size of its original campus.
The expansion includes the GMP building, the nation's only pediatric
research center on-site facility for production of highly specialized
medicines and vaccines; an Integrated Research Center, housing a
Children's Infection Defense Center; and an expanded Immunology
Department. Future growth will include a new Integrated Patient
Care and Research Building where rapidly evolving CT (computerized
tomography) and MR (magnetic resonance) technology will keep St. Jude at
the cutting edge for radiation therapy in a pediatric/adolescent
setting. |
| The hospital's daily operating costs
are approximately $1,027,832, which are primarily covered by public
contributions. |
| During the past five years, 84.3% of
every dollar received by ALSAC/St Jude has gone to the current or future
needs of St. Jude. |
| St. Jude pioneered a combination of
chemotherapy, radiation and, when necessary, surgery to treat childhood
cancers. The hospital continues to expand the use of stem cell
transplantation as treatment for pediatric cancers and genetic diseases. |
| Peter C. Doherty, PhD, of the St. Jude
Immunology department, won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in
1996. He shares the award with Rolf M. Zinkernagel, MD, of the
University of Zurich. Their findings have led to breakthroughs in the
understanding and treatment of viral infections and cancers, and in the
development of organ transplant procedures and vaccines. |
| Since its inception, St. Jude has
developed protocols that have brought survival rates for childhood
cancers from less than 20% to about 70% overall. |
| Each St. Jude patient must be referred
by a physician, have a disease currently under study at the hospital,
and be eligible for a current research protocol. |
| St. Jude researchers and doctors are
treating children with genetic immune defects and pediatric AIDS, as
well as using new drugs and therapies to fight infections. |
| St. Jude is a World Health Organization
Collaborating Center for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza Viruses in
Animals and Birds. |
| St. Jude operates a stem cell
transplant program that enables doctors to perform approximately 150
transplants per year. |
| St. Jude was the first facility outside
of the National Institutes of Health to receive federal approval for
research involving human gene therapy. |
| The St. Jude facility includes three
National Academy of Sciences members: Peter C. Doherty, PhD, of
Immunology; Charles Sherr, MD, PhD, of Tumor Cell Biology; and Robert
Webster, PhD, of Infectious Diseases. Sherr and James Ihle, PhD,
hold the coveted title of Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. |
| Since 1998, former St. Jude Director
Arthur Nienhuis, MD, has served on the National Cancer Advisory Board.
Nienhuis was appointed by the President of the United States to the
board, which provides advice to the President, the Secretary of Health
and Human Services, and the director of the National Cancer Institute. |
