New Pediatric Oncology Research Laboratory Dedication At Childrens Hospital Of Newyork-Presbyterian

CONTACT: Bryan

Dotson

Annie Bayne

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital

Columbia University Health Sciences Division

(212) 305-5587

(212) 305-3900

brd9005@nyp.org

as862@columbia.edu

***MEDIA ALERT***

New Pediatric Oncology

Research Laboratory Dedication

at Children’s Hospital

of NewYork-Presbyterian

$3 Million Pediatric

Cancer Research Foundation Grant Establishes State-of-the-Art Facility

WHAT: The Children’s

Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian and the Division of Pediatric Oncology

at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons (P&S) received

a 3-year, $3 million grant from the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation

(PCRF) of Irvine, CA to establish a state-of-the-art pediatric oncology

research laboratory. The 2,000-square-foot laboratory will incorporate

a suite of research facilities that feature the latest, most high-tech

equipment currently available. The new pediatric cancer research center

will be dedicated at a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

WHO:

Dr. Mitchell Cairo, director of the Children’s Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian

blood and marrow transplant and experimental therapeutics programs for

children with cancer and assistant professor of pediatrics at P&S,

will head the new research laboratory. Dr. Cairo is an expert in

stem cell biology, molecular oncology, and gene therapy and principal investigator

and chair of several stem cell transplantation clinical trials that study

possible benefits for pediatric cancer patients.

Other speakers at the

event will include:

*Dr. Gerald M. Fischbach, executive vice president of health and biomedical

sciences and

dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Columbia University;

*Dr. Karen Antman, director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer

Center at Columbia

Presbyterian Medical Center, and the Wu Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology

at

P&S;

*Cynthia Sparer, executive director, Children’s Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian;

and

*John Wiener, president, Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation.

WHEN:

Friday, March 22, 2002

11:00 AM

WHERE: Children’s

Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian

3959 Broadway (at 166th Street)

New York, NY 10032

*Despite tremendous progress in research

and patient care, the battle is far from over. Cancer today remains the

No. 1 killer of young people, afflicting more children under 18 years of

age each year than any other disease. In 2002, enough children to fill

2 classrooms are diagnosed with cancer each school day. Although survival

rates are improving, one out of every 330 young people will develop cancer

by age 20, and 35 percent of children with cancer will die from the disease

(source: PCRF).

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Tags

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