Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG)

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT - OVERALL Cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death in children in the US. The mission of the St. Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center (SJCCC) at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (SJCRH) is to advance cures for pediatric cancer through research and treatment. For more than 4 decades, the SJCCC has pursued our mission with the support of a Cancer Center Support Grant from the NCI. We are the only NCI-designated Cancer Center that is dedicated solely to the research and treatment of pediatric malignancies. As such, the SJCCC serves as a national and international resource for health care providers, children with cancer, and their families. Through the support of ALSAC, a separate organization whose sole purpose is to raise money in support of SJCRH, we receive robust institutional support. Five interdisciplinary Research Programs are organized with the specific intent of translating basic science discoveries into curative therapies for children with cancer, while minimizing long-term side effects. The Cancer Biology Program (CBP), which embeds basic cancer research within the heart of the SJCCC collaborates closely with three disease-oriented Programs that focus on innovative translational and clinical research in Developmental Biology and Solid Tumors (DBSTP), Hematological Malignancies (HMP), and Neurobiology and Brain Tumors (NBTP). Finally, the Cancer Control and Survivorship Program (CCSP) strives to translate discoveries into effective strategies to avert or mitigate treatment-related complications and improve the quality of life for survivors. Research by the 146 SJCCC members, including 66 members recruited since the prior renewal, is supported by nine Shared Resources, one Developing Shared Resource, and an extraordinary clinical research infrastructure. Director Charles W. M. Roberts, MD, PhD, has fostered the growth in quality and impact of SJCCC research via two successive strategic plans and driven enhanced inter-institutional collaboration and engagement with national collaborative groups via new SJCCC led institutionally funded initiatives. SJCRH and ALSAC have committed $380.1M in new investment to support the SJCCC Strategic Plan. A total of 5,748 interventional clinical trial enrollments occurred at the Center during the current project period, of which 71% were enrollments to SJCCC investigator-initiated trials and 16% were enrollments to external peer-reviewed trials, many which are led by SJCCC members. The SJCCC has $44.6M (direct cost) in extramural funding, including $28M in NCI funding, an 86% increase since the prior period. Extramural funding for team science has increased by 50% from $6.30M to $9.44M, and NCI funding for training grants has increased 7-fold to $2.6M. Since the last renewal submission, SJCCC members have published more than 2,200 peer-reviewed manuscripts, which includes a marked increase in publications in high-impact journals (IF>10) from 26% in the prior period to 37%. Pursuit of the proposed work is designed to improve outcomes and long-term quality of life for children with cancer not only within the SJCCC Catchment Area but also across the country and around the globe.