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Press Release

Head of The Children’s Oncology Group Goes Bald at Annual Fall Meeting


September 22, 2022

Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:

Jo Anne Avelar
626-792-8247, ext. 221
joanne.avelar@stbaldricks.org

New Orleans, LA (September 22, 2022) – The Children’s Oncology Group (COG), a National Cancer Institute supported clinical trials group, and the world’s largest organization devoted exclusively to childhood cancer research, gathered at a reception yesterday at its annual Fall Meeting where its chair, Dr. Doug Hawkins, braved the shave.

This now marks three Chairs of the group who have shaved their heads in solidarity with children with cancer. The Children’s Oncology Group consists of doctors, nurses, laboratory scientists and other allied professionals, who conduct clinical trials to improve outcomes for all children with cancer and give kids a lifetime. The COG and St. Baldrick’s Foundation share this very same mission. St Baldrick’s has been a major supporter of the COG since its inception in 2005 and has now funded over $95 million to the group.

“As a pediatric oncologist for more than 25 years and the COG Chair for the past 2.5 years, I have seen incredible advances in the treatment of childhood cancer.” said Dr. Doug Hawkins, COG Chair. “Yet, it is obvious that more progress is necessary. Too many children will die from cancer, and too often those who survive have life-threatening side effects from their therapy. Until we can cure all children with minimal or no toxicity, COG and St. Baldrick’s Foundation have a shared mission.”

Funding helps the COG to conduct approximately 100 clinical trials at any given time which include front-line treatments for many different types of childhood cancers, studies focused on identifying and understanding the biology of the diseases, trials involving emerging treatments, supportive care and survivorship. This research has made great progress, but one in five kids in the U.S. still do not survive cancer.

“At the COG’s first in-person meeting since before the pandemic, I was thrilled to be part of the crowd in New Orleans, cheering Dr. Hawkins on as he became the next in a long line of COG members to brave the shave,” said Becky Chapman Weaver, Chief Mission Officer for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. “Now every chair in the COG’s history has been a shavee.  And next up in the barber chair was another COG member with far more hair to lose, Abigail Moskov.  A clinical research associate, she decided to shave just two days before the event.  Together, the two have raised more than $10,000 already.”

The COG Fall Meeting in New Orleans welcomed almost 2,200 members and guests from nearly 250 different hospitals, cancer centers, universities, government agencies, pharmaceutical companies and advocacy organizations.

For more information on The Children’s Oncology Group, please visit childrensoncologygroup.org.