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MILWAUKEE (6/25/2008) - Six-year gift will establish the MACC Fund Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders
 At an event held this morning at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa, Wis., the MACC Fund (Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer, Inc.) pledged to the hospital a gift of $5 million over the next six years to support the outpatient cancer clinic's translational research. To honor the gift, the clinic will be renamed MACC Fund Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.
"The MACC Fund is a critical partner in cancer research in this community," said Michael Kelly, MD, PhD, program director, Cancer, Children's Hospital. "This gift will expand available resources to faciliate bench to bedside research with the ultimate goal of finding cures." Kelly also is an associate professor of Pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
The Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at Children's Hospital is among the largest programs, with some of the most experienced staff in the nation. Research into causes, characteristics, treatments, responses, side effects and long-term outcomes is performed every day to enhance the ongoing health and quality of children's lives. Translational research is focused on using outcomes data to provide the most advanced medical technology and updated protocols for treating children. The center's comprehensive care relies on the expertise of specialized physicians in Pediatric Cancer, Blood Disorders, Blood and Bone Marrow Transplant, Immunology, Pathology, Orthopedics and other specialties, as well as nurses, social workers, child life specialists, physical and occupational therapists, nutritionists and others.
"When I began my career at Children's Hospital nearly 40 years ago, childhood cancer survival rates were less than 20 percent," said James T. Casper, MD, medical director, Hematology/Oncology at Children's Hospital and professor of Pediatrics at the Medical College. "Today, our survival rates are 80 percent and for some types of cancer even higher. But our work is not done until we eradicate childhood cancer altogether, because if your child is one who does not survive, the percentages don't matter."
Since 1976, the MACC Fund has been investing in and advancing research into pediatric cancer and related blood disorders. Through the efforts of clinical and bench researchers at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, the Medical College of Wisconsin and other investigators around the country, survival rates for children with cancer have increased, with many of the original treatment protocols being discovered in Milwaukee. The MACC Fund's commitment has been instrumental in this success.
"For the past 32 years, the MACC Fund has been about funding cancer research, which would not be possible without the generous support of all of our donors," said Jon McGlocklin, president, MACC Fund. "Thanks to our donors, this gift to Children's Hospital will help us save more kids' lives quicker. And that's what we're about."
The MACC Fund has played an important role in helping cure rates for childhood cancer increase from 20 percent to 80 percent in the past 30 years. Cancer is the leading disease-related cause of death in children after the newborn period. Statistics show that one in 300 children will contract some form of cancer by the age of 19.
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