Giving

Over the last fifty years, childhood cancer has gone from an almost universally fatal disease to one that is curable in most patients. This remarkable achievement has come about through the effort of clinical investigators and laboratory scientists. With this success has come the realization that the goal of curing all children with cancer is achievable. The increasing survival of children with cancer has resulted in the recognition of the need to reduce long-term sequelae and improve quality of life. Emerging scientific information has provided the hope that, one day, childhood cancer may be preventable.

As recently as the 1960s, children with sickle cell disease were not expected to reach adulthood. While this is still true in the Third World, in the United States nearly all children survive into adulthood now and many have nearly normal life spans. This improved outlook is due to ongoing research efforts supported by the National Institutes of Health and carried out at sickle cell centers and thalassemia networks throughout the country.

There have also been enormous advances in the care of children with hemophilia and other bleeding disorders in the last thirty years. Prior to the 1970's, most children with hemophilia were unable to lead "normal" lives - they were frequently hospitalized or stayed at home when they experienced painful bleeding into their joints and muscles, the hallmark of hemophilia. Children born with hemophilia today can be expected to live normal lives and participate as productive members of our society. The hope for the future is a "cure" for hemophilia using techniques involving gene therapy; some progress has already been made in that direction.

Our vision in the UCSF Children’s Cancer and Blood Disease Program is to design and perform clinical trials to develop improved treatments for childhood and adolescent cancers and blood diseases, to conduct laboratory research that leads to fundamental discoveries that will translate into better treatments, and to identify the mechanisms of childhood cancer and blood diseases, leading eventually to the prevention of these diseases, and finally, to support research to improve palliative care of children during their treatment.

Your donation can help us to achieve these goals.

To Make a Gift:

1. Please make your gift(s) payable to:
   
   UCSF Foundation/Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
   
   If you want this gift to go specifically towards leukemia, neuroblastoma, sickle cell disease or hemophilia, please specify it in the memo section of the check.
   
2. Send your gift to:

   Division of Hematology/Oncology
   University of California, San Francisco
   P.O. Box 0106
   505 Parnassus Ave. Rm 649
   San Francisco, CA 94143
   Attn: Diana Block

Thank you for your generous donation.

To obtain more information, call Katherine Matthay at 415-476-3831 or email matthayk@peds.ucsf.edu.