publication date: Oct. 12, 2018

Conversation with The Cancer Letter

St. Jude’s Downing: WHO effort can raise cure rates up to 60% for children with cancer

James R. Downing

President and CEO,

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

The $15 million collaboration between St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the World Health Organization is the first step to improving access in low and middle-income countries to affordable treatments for six common types of childhood cancer, said James Downing, St. Jude president and CEO.

“To raise the cure rates to 60 percent, very little use of any targeted agents or immunotherapy agents will be required,” Downing said. “That is part of why we chose the six cancers that we did as the goal.

“That doesn’t mean precision medicine approaches or targeted agents won’t be used later, but it’s this first step of building that foundation so that, in time, those can be used as costs come down or as they can be applied within those settings.”

Downing spoke with Matthew Ong, a reporter with The Cancer Letter.

Matthew Ong:

Dr. Downing, it was good to see you at the United Nations for the announcement. Did everything go as planned?

James Downing:

It was an exciting day. We were very happy with the way the entire day went, and the tone … Continue reading St. Jude’s Downing: WHO effort can raise cure rates up to 60% for children with cancer

To access this members-only content, please log in.
Institutional subscribers, please log in with your IP.
If you're not a subscriber why not join today?

To gain access to the members only content click here to subscribe.
You will be given immediate access to premium content on the site.
Click here to join.