Renowned St. Jude clinician and researcher to receive coveted award at AACR annual meeting

Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital are preparing to demonstrate their expertise and foster collaborations at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting. It will be held April 5-10, 2024 in San Diego, California.

Each year, members of the cancer research community including scientists, clinicians, healthcare professionals, cancer survivors, patients and advocates attend AACR’s annual meeting. It provides an opportunity for St. Jude researchers to share their research findings with a broad audience. 

Charles W.M. Roberts, MD, PhD, St. Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center director, will chair a discussion on insights into cancer’s underlying biology as part of the session The Nature of Cancer: Lessons Learned from Tumors with Simple Genomes on April 8, 2024 at 5:00 p.m. PT. In addition, Julie R. Park, MD, St. Jude Department of Oncology chair, will discuss improving the “fitness” of cellular therapies to enhance activity against pediatric solid tumors as part of the session “Advancing Cellular Therapies for Childhood Solid Malignancies.” The discussion will take place April 9, 2024 at 1:45 p.m. PT.

Greg Armstrong, MD, MSCE, St. Jude Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Control chair, will host a talk on the lifetime impact of childhood cancer and therapy on quality of life and targets for intervention as part of a session on approaches to improve quality of life and long-term outcomes in cancer survivors across the lifespan. The session will be held April 7 at 1:05 p.m. PT.

Paul Northcott, PhD, St. Jude Molecular Neuro-Oncology chair, is chairing the session Advances in Pediatric Cancer: Mechanisms, Vulnerabilities, and Translation on April 8. The session aims to spotlight recent advances in clinically-aggressive childhood cancers, covering the cellular origins of medulloblastoma, novel epigenetic subtypes of osteosarcoma and determinants of malignant transformation, disease progression and treatment response in the pediatric setting.

In addition, Pandurang Kolekar, PhD, bioinformatics research scientist at St. Jude, will take part in a discussion on a gene panel dedicated to childhood cancers. “SJPedPanel: A pan-cancer gene panel for childhood malignancies,” takes place April 8, 2024 from 3:50-4:04 p.m. PT.

Other St. Jude researchers will give poster presentations to update the field on their recent and ongoing studies. Topics will range from rhabdomyosarcoma to survivorship and take place throughout the conference.

Dr. Ching-Hon Pui, MD Honored

AACR will honor Ching-Hon Pui, MD for his contributions in pediatric cancer research at this year’s meeting. Dr. Pui will receive the St. Baldrick’s Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement in Pediatric Cancer Research.

Dr. Pui is being recognized for revolutionizing the treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and co-founding international collaborative groups dedicated to improving ALL survivorship. Pui’s clinical and translational research demonstrated that cranial irradiation, once a standard treatment for childhood high-risk ALL, may be safely omitted with consistent patient monitoring, in turn sparing patients from unnecessary radiation and improving overall quality of life. His work has helped raise the five-year survival rate for childhood ALL above 90%.

Dr. Pui is the Hematological Malignancies Program co-leader; St. Jude Global’s China region director; Fahad Nassar Al-Rashid Endowed chair of leukemia research; and American Cancer Society professor. His award lecture will be held Tuesday, April 9, at 3:45 p.m. PT.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats and cures childhood cancer, sickle cell disease, and other life-threatening disorders. It is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children. Treatments developed at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20% to 80% since the hospital opened more than 60 years ago. St. Jude shares the breakthroughs it makes to help doctors and researchers at local hospitals and cancer centers around the world improve the quality of treatment and care for even more children. To learn more, visit stjude.org,  read Progress: A Digital Magazine, and follow St. Jude on social media at @stjuderesearch.

St. Jude Media Relations Contact

Rae Lyn Hartley
(901) 686-2597
RaeLyn.Rushing@stjude.org
media@stjude.org