New Brunswick, N.J. – The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a volunteer-powered and donor-centered charity dedicated to raising money for childhood cancer research, is proud to award a one-year, $50,000 grant to the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey. This grant is one of 33 infrastructure grants awarded as part of the Foundation’s fall grant cycle, totaling $2 million.
Each year, roughly 700,000 adolescents and young adults (ages 15-39) are diagnosed with cancer in the United States. Despite the increase of childhood cancer survival rates in the last two decades, adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients have had minimal improvements in cure rates. Contributing to this statistic is the AYA population’s low number of participation in clinical research trials. The grant awarded to Rutgers looks to close to this gap by providing the necessary funds to have a dedicated Clinical Research Nurse in order to ensure successful, patient-oriented, safe and effective conduct of clinical trials at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey.
“On behalf of the pediatric hematology/oncology clinical and research staff at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and the thousands of patients we treat each year, I thank the St. Baldrick’s Foundation for supporting our programs,” stated Richard Drachtman, MD, Section Chief, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey. “This grant will allow us to give our Clinical Research Nurses the necessary dedicated time to assist investigators to prepare and implement new clinical trials, screen and enroll study participants, and provide protocol-related clinical management to those participants while on study.”
This series of grants, combined with the more than $21.2 million awarded in July to fund cutting-edge research, brings the St. Baldrick’s Foundation’s funding total to more than $23 million awarded in 2015. Grants were awarded based on the need of the institution and its patients, anticipated results of the grant and local participation in St. Baldrick’s fundraising events and activities.
“The St. Baldrick’s Foundation is excited to fund this latest round of grants, which will give much needed support to multiple pediatric cancer treatment teams across the U.S.,” said Kathleen Ruddy, chief executive officer of St. Baldrick’s. “These grants will improve the capacity of the institutions to do more research, enroll more children in cutting-edge clinical trials, and complete studies that are in progress. These grants would not be possible without our dedicated volunteers and generous donors who believe that kids deserve better than the toxic medicines that are currently available which all too often harm developing bodies and create lifelong, life-threatening health problems.”
To learn how you can get involved visit www.StBaldricks.org, and connect with St. Baldrick’s on social media via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Vimeo.
About St. Baldrick’s Foundation
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation is a volunteer-powered charity committed to funding the most promising research to find cures for childhood cancers and give survivors long and healthy lives. Since 2005, St. Baldrick’s has awarded more than $178 million to support lifesaving research, making the Foundation the largest private funder of childhood cancer research grants. For more information about the St. Baldrick’s Foundation please call 1.888.899.BALD or visit www.StBaldricks.org.
Contact:
Lexi Rudolph
919-334-3790
lexi.rudolph@fleishman.com