University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Receives Childhood Cancer Research Grant

Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Traci Shirk
626-792-8247 ext. 50
traci@stbaldricks.org

University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Receives Childhood Cancer Research Grant

St. Baldrick’s Foundation awards $50,000 to help kids with cancer

MIAMI (January 5, 2012) – It takes life-saving research and access to clinical trials to help children with cancer. The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a volunteer-driven charity dedicated to raising money for childhood cancer research, awarded an infrastructure grant of $50,000 to University of Miami (UM) Miller School of Medicine. The Foundation’s infrastructure grants provide institutions with resources to enable them to conduct more research and enroll more kids in ongoing clinical trials – their best hope for a cure.

Worldwide, more than 160,000 children are diagnosed with cancer each year and it remains the leading cause of death by disease among children in the United States. With only 4 percent of all federal cancer research funding dedicated to pediatric cancer research, and more than 70 percent of children receiving treatment through clinical trials, St. Baldrick’s Foundation infrastructure grants are critical to finding cures for all childhood cancers.

This grant will help provide staffing and necessary resources at UM Miller School of Medicine to establish a Family Centered Patient Care Program that is essential for stem cell transplant patients. In addition to close attention to their medical needs, patients undergoing a stem cell transplant and their caretakers/families have special psychological, emotional and social needs. Funding will also allow the medical team to focus on patients’ medical problems and develop more clinical trials.

“The grant from the St. Baldrick’s Foundation to create a Family Centered Patient Care Program as part of our Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Program comes at the most opportune time,” said Dr. Martin Andreansky, director of the pediatric blood and marrow transplant program at the UM School of Medicine and Holtz Children’s Hospital. “We are opening a seven-bed unit in a few months, and the grant will help us provide the comprehensive care our patients desperately need throughout the entire transplant process.” 

The infrastructure grants, combined with the more than $19.6 million awarded in June, bring the St. Baldrick’s Foundation’s funding total to more than $21 million awarded in 2011. Infrastructure 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 events.

“I mainly got involved with St. Baldrick’s to help others and be a part of something bigger than myself, as well as to show other young kids and adults that their help matters and you can make a difference as an individual,” said Bruce Ramil, volunteer event organizer of the Chef Adriannes Vineyard Restaurant & Wine Bar, Miami event. “It’s also great to see how the community has come together to help support and make a St. Baldrick’s event possible.”

Everyone can do their part to support St. Baldrick’s! To locate or organize an event in your community, sign-up to shave, donate or volunteer, visit www.StBaldricks.org. You can also become a fan on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, join our letsCONQUER movement and visit the Foundation’s YouTube and Vimeo channels.

About the St. Baldrick’s Foundation
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation is a volunteer-driven charity committed to funding the most promising research to find cures for childhood cancers and give survivors long and healthy lives. The Foundation funds more in childhood cancer research grants than any organization except the U.S. government. St. Baldrick’s funds are granted to some of the most brilliant childhood cancer research experts in the world and to younger professionals who will be the experts of tomorrow. Funds awarded also enable hundreds of local institutions to participate in national pediatric cancer clinical trials, a child’s best hope for a cure. Since the Foundation’s first grants as an independent charity in 2005, St. Baldrick’s has funded more than $78 million in childhood cancer research. For more information about the St. Baldrick’s Foundation please call 1.888.899.BALD or visit www.StBaldricks.org.