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St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Researches and treats deadly childhood diseases - primarily cancer. No family ever pays St. Jude for anything. Research findings are shared worldwide.

Telephone: 800-822-6344
http://www.stjude.org

CFC Code: 10560
IRS EIN Number: 62-0646012
AFR: 4.7% What's this?

Meet Sam - 18 years old

Sam Sam takes pencil to paper. In his cartoon, cancer comes alive as a demented monster, bigger than life. It has horns, sharp fangs and whites for eyes. It looks like a dinosaur on crack—stupid but deadly. This monster, cancer, has its arms outstretched. It’s coming after Sam. But Sam is a fighter.

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Sam takes pencil to paper. In his cartoon, cancer comes alive as a demented monster, bigger than life. It has horns, sharp fangs and whites for eyes. It looks like a dinosaur on crack—stupid but deadly. This monster, cancer, has its arms outstretched. It’s coming after Sam. But Sam is a fighter.

Case in point: On May 19, 2012, Sam walked across the stage as his high school valedictorian, despite the fact he’s been battling medulloblastoma, a brain tumor, for almost three years.

His cancer treatment began at a hospital near his home in 2009, but in 2011 when the cancer came back, Sam was told by local doctors he didn’t have a chance. But Sam and his parents wouldn’t give up. The family turned to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

In August 2011, Sam entered a clinical trial involving an experimental drug called GDC0449. The results, at first, were encouraging, but in December 2011, after scans indicated tumor regrowth, Sam underwent brain surgery. Since then, Sam has been treated at St. Jude with a number of experimental chemotherapies, as well as radiation therapy, to combat his recurrent tumor growth.

During this time, the family has never received a bill. St. Jude treats the world’s sickest children with the best care, and no family ever pays St. Jude for anything. His parents couldn’t be more grateful. If Sam had never gotten treatment from St. Jude, he might not have made it to graduation. The St. Jude school program also gave Sam the resources he needed to keep up with his classes and still be valedictorian.

The young man has so much potential, such a great mind. Sam has a full scholarship to Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), where he will be a freshman in the fall. He will study Health Sciences, with the hope of someday becoming a pediatric oncologist. St. Jude wants Sam to have his future.

In Sam’s cartoon, he’s much smaller than cancer. He’s short and bald. He shouldn’t have a chance. But Sam is determined, angry and armed. He won’t go without a fight. He sizes up the monster before him. He takes his sword and thrusts to the gut.

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St. Jude Children's Research Hospital - Latest News

Top stories for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

John Rich & Friends Entertainment Event to Benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

2013-05-15 00:00:00.0

John Rich will perform alongside his friends Wynonna, Larry the Cable Guy and Big Kenny, Rich’s partner in Big & Rich, and special guest Lisa Rinna at the St. Jude Presents John Rich & Friends entertainment event on June 4 at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts in Memphis, Tennessee. The event will serve as the second annual concert tee off for the 2013 FedEx St. Jude Classic.

Robert Webster, Ph.D., presented with National Foundation for Infectious Diseases award

2013-05-14 00:00:00.0

Virologist Robert G. Webster, Ph.D., of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, is the recipient of the Charles Mérieux Award from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID).

St. Jude ranked No. 1 preferred company to work for by millennials

2013-05-13 00:00:00.0

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital ranks first on the list of places top students and young professionals want to work, according to a survey conducted by the National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS).

St. Jude scientist named Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator

2013-05-09 00:00:00.0

Michael Dyer, Ph.D., of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, has been recognized as one of the nation’s leading biomedical researchers by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

T cells rely on “rheostat” to help ensure that the immune response matches the threat

2013-04-30 00:00:00.0

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital advances understanding of how T cells craft an appropriate immune response; setting the stage for new strategies to intervene if the system goes awry. (Dr. Dario Vignali)

$20 could assist St. Jude in buying one toy for the hospital play areas or recreational areas located in the lodging facilities.
$30 could assist St. Jude in providing a St. Jude family with meals for one day in the St. Jude cafeteria.
$40 monthly during one year could assist St. Jude in providing domestic airfare for one St. Jude patient.
$57 could assist St. Jude in providing necessities for parents when they arrive at St. Jude.
$80 monthly during one year could assist St. Jude in providing international airfare for one St. Jude patient.
$90 a month for one year could assist St. Jude in providing family lodging.
$100 a month for one year could assist St. Jude in providing a child with two days of treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
$100 could assist St. Jude in providing a grocery gift card for a St. Jude family in town for long-term treatment.
$132 provides a complete blood count test.
$150 could assist St. Jude in providing a child with one day of Child Life specialist services.
$210 could assist St. Jude in providing a St. Jude family with meals for one week in the St. Jude cafeteria.
$320 could assist St. Jude in providing a child with one chest X-ray.
$516 provides one hour of physical therapy
$760 a month for one year could assist St. Jude in providing a child with one CT scan.

St. Jude's groundbreaking development of combination therapy for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common form of childhood cancer, revolutionized leukemia therapy worldwide and increased the survival rate from 4 percent when St. Jude opened in 1962 to 94 percent today.
St. Jude has developed protocols that have helped push overall survival rates for childhood cancers from less than 20 percent when the hospital opened in 1962 to 80 percent today.
St. Jude is the first and only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted to children.
St. Jude's brain tumor science and technology are at the cutting edge worldwide, and St. Jude has the largest research-based pediatric brain tumor research program in the country. St. Jude is the coordinating center of the national Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium, which receives funding from the National Cancer Institute.
Led by St. Jude Director and CEO Dr. William E. Evans, St. Jude is spearheading the emerging field of pharmacogenomics, which can predict how a patient will respond to medications by identifying variations in specific genes that contribute to the patient's response to certain drugs.
St. Jude was the first to study a computer-based three-dimensional radiation therapy technique for pediatric brain tumor treatment to minimize damage to healthy tissue and preserve cognitive development in children.
St. Jude was the first institution to produce a cure for sickle cell disease with a bone marrow transplant and has one of the largest pediatric sickle cell disease programs in the country.
St. Jude was the first center to receive government approval for a unique transplant procedure that makes it possible for parents who are not exact matches to be bone marrow donors for their children.
The St. Jude After Completion of Therapy (ACT) program is the largest long-term, follow-up clinic for pediatric cancer patients in the United States. The Clinic's accomplishments are now an integral part of national guidelines for screening and managing the late effects of survivors of pediatric cancer.