Lemieux Foundation, Children's Hospital Team Up On New Lymphoma Center
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The Mario Lemieux Foundation and Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh have teamed up to announce a new youth lymphoma center.
This is just one of the latest things the Lemieux Foundation has done to help children battle against undesirable health conditions.
Children's Hospital announced Wednesday it has received a $2.5 million gift from the Mario Lemieux Foundation.
"What the Lemieux Foundation has done today is the best of what Pittsburgh is," said Greg Barrett, the president of the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation.
Mario Lemieux himself joined hospital officials for the announcement. The gift will establish a new center for rare and hard-to-treat lymphomas.
It is expected to benefit children and young adults from around the world.
"This Lemieux gift is going to allow us to recruit an additional clinical research who will work with our team and coordinate new clinical trials and cutting edge treatments," said Linda McAllister, the chief of pediatric hematology/oncology.
Lymphoma is the third most common type of childhood cancer.
In the United States, more than 1,500 children are diagnosed per year with some form of the disease.
"Thankfully, we are able to cure the majority of patients diagnosed with lymphoma, but there are still a significant number of patients for whom the standard tried and true treatments don't work," McAllister said.
The gift will give the hospital the ability to enhance basic clinical research in a way that could lead to new and improved treatments for patients who have very limited options.
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