New St. Jude alliance with San Diego institutions helps advance fight against cancer

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital continues to define the forefront of clinical care and research by announcing the creation of a new alliance with two Southern California institutions: Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego; and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

The unique alliance is designed to benefit both patient care and research efforts. It will enable St. Jude, Rady Children's and UCSD to combine their resources and expertise to pursue basic and translational research and clinical trials. With the treatment and research focus on pediatric cancer, other key partners include Children's Specialists of San Diego.

A first for St. Jude is that the alliance will offer patients in Southern California protocols previously inaccessible in that region. The initial protocol will focus on acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients who have relapsed.

“The alliance is designed to encourage and facilitate collaborative research that is of great interest to St. Jude, while allowing patients in the San Diego area to continue to receive medical care close to their homes,” said William E. Evans, Pharm.D., St. Jude hospital director and CEO. “This alliance will allow St. Jude to continue its mission of advancing cures and means of prevention for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment.”

Kathleen Sellick, President and CEO of Rady Children's Hospital added, “This new relationship with St. Jude and UC San Diego is another opportunity to further that vision.  It enables UC San Diego, St. Jude, Rady Children's and Children's Specialists of San Diego to combine the strengths of each organization right here in San Diego. 

Initially, the clinical trials available to children in Southern California will be studies of new cancer treatments; in the future, they will have access to clinical trials for other catastrophic diseases. In addition, St. Jude and UCSD investigators will collaborate on basic and translational research projects, including future efforts in nanotechnology.

“This exciting collaboration will bring promising experimental therapies for children to San Diego, and bring together the talents of the UCSD research community with those of St. Jude, one of the most impressive pediatric research centers in the country,” said David Brenner, M.D., Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences at UC San Diego.

Evans added, “We will take advantage of the intellectual capital of basic, translational and clinical researchers at all three institutions to advance medical knowledge of fundamental biological principles and systems underlying childhood cancers in order to increase the cure rates for children with catastrophic diseases around the world.”