Philanthropy can move mountains. Each award received by our physician researchers brings hope to countless patients and their families--and Dr. Natasha Frederick is in the spotlight for her most recent award. St. Baldrick’s Foundation, the nation’s largest charitable funder of childhood cancer research grants, just announced its newest round of infrastructure grants amounting to more than $1.2 million. Connecticut Children's will receive one of twenty-seven grants awarded across 20 states to expand patient access to pediatric cancer clinical trials and to accelerate scientific discoveries to conquer kids’ cancer.

Natasha Frederick consults with a patient

This St. Baldrick’s Infrastructure Award will support Dr. Natasha Frederick and Connecticut Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders in their efforts to continue to improve AYA access to clinical trials. Connecticut Children’s has great success in cancer clinical trial participation, participating in 89 active and enrolling clinical trials over the past year. We recognize that our Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) population can benefit from enhanced access to and enrollment on clinical trials, which are critical to helping AYA patients thrive, during and after treatment. The Infrastructure Award will enable Dr. Frederick and the AYA team to identify new clinical trials available, continue to develop relationships with local adult oncology programs in order to provide access to clinical trials for AYAs in their care, and advertise the AYA Program to referring providers to ensure that the greatest number of patients benefit from our services, including clinical trial opportunities. Importantly, Dr. Frederick’s work includes a special focus on increasing enrollment on supportive care clinical trials—not just therapeutic trials—in an effort to improve quality of life during and after treatment. These are the types of trials that help patients truly live, not just survive.

Made possible by St. Baldricks volunteers and generous donors, these grants are critical to ensuring that more kids are treated on clinical trials – often a child’s last chance for a cure.

Clinical trials are the last stage of research, leading to new approved drugs and/or therapies that improve the quality of life for patients and survivors. The Foundation’s infrastructure grants support programs and the personnel necessary to open and coordinate clinical trials.

“Research is hope and the dedication and generosity of the St. Baldrick’s community equips researchers to save children’s lives,” said Kathleen Ruddy, St. Baldrick’s CEO. “Countless children are alive today because of volunteers, donors, and researchers. Together, they make more childhood cancer survivors.”

The latest grants bring the total of research funded by the St. Baldrick’s Foundation to $324 million and 1,701 grants since 2005.

The next round of grants from St. Baldrick's Foundation will be announced in January 2023. For more information about St. Baldrick’s Foundation Grants or ways to get involved, please visit StBaldricks.org. 

About St. Baldrick’s Foundation Every 2 minutes, a child somewhere is diagnosed with cancer. In the U.S., 1 in 5 will not survive. The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, the largest charitable funder of childhood cancer research grants, is on a mission to Conquer Kids’ Cancer by supporting the most promising research to find cures and better treatments for all childhood cancers. When you give to St. Baldrick’s, you don’t just give to one hospital – you support virtually every institution with the expertise to treat kids with cancer across the U.S. St. Baldrick’s ensures that children fighting cancer now -- and those diagnosed in the future -- will have access to the most cutting-edge treatment, by supporting every stage of research, from new ideas in the lab to the training of the next generation of researchers, to life-saving clinical trials. Visit StBaldricks.org and help #ConquerKidsCancer.