A Child with Cancer Receives the Best Chance for a Cure

St. Baldrick’s Infrastructure Grant Increases Childhood Cancer Clinical Trials in Chicago

Sixteen-year old Shantrice is from an inner-city Chicago neighborhood. After losing a tremendous amount of weight, noticing a lump on her neck, experiencing nightly fevers, and an unsteady gait, her mother rushed her to the hospital where she was diagnosed with Stage 4 B Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a type of childhood cancer. Shantrice was enrolled on a Children’s Oncology Group (COG) protocol – a treatment plan that gave her the best chance for a cure – and something that would not have been possible just a few years earlier.

In 2008, Dr. Mary Lou Schmidt, a pediatric oncologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and a 2008 St. Baldrick’s shavee, proposed a merger between three Chicago hospitals: UIC, Rush University Medical Center, and John H. Stroger Hospital (formerly Cook County Hospital) to gain membership into the COG. UIC and Rush had been long standing members of COG but with very small COG programs because of limited philanthropic support. Stroger had solid expertise in pediatric oncology, but lacked the resources to participate in a cooperative research program. This prevented the city’s most financially-vulnerable patients from accessing clinical trials – a child’s best hope for a cure.

Before the merger, opportunities for patients to enroll in clinical trials at these hospitals were scarce. As a direct result of St. Baldrick’s funding, those numbers have dramatically increased. “More patients are now able to receive second opinions, new experimental drugs and therapies,” said Schmidt. “Doctors also now have access to the COG website, containing a wealth of information on COG protocols and treatment planning.

The increase in enrollment within culturally-diverse Chicago is also expanding childhood cancer research through COG’s worldwide network. Racial and ethnic groups from various socioeconomic backgrounds are largely underrepresented in clinical trials, and the information gathered from participants at UIC, Rush and Stroger will further advance pediatric cancer research.

Shantrice’s treatment isn’t over, she still has more chemotherapy to go, which will be followed by radiation, but within four weeks of initial therapy Shantrice was feeling like herself again. Her weight is improving, her gait is sure and steady and her neck has returned to normal. Shantrice’s mom is thrilled, “I’m speechless. I never thought that she would feel better so fast.”

“Thank you to the donors and volunteers of the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. The patients, families, and staff at UIC, Rush, and Stroger Medical Centers are grateful that St. Baldrick’s has supported us so strongly. Because of the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, patients are receiving a much higher quality of care and COG research is much more diverse.” – Dr. Mary Lou Schmidt, UIC