MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – Former President Bill Clinton said Friday that genetic research being done at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis is helping increase the survival rate for children who have cancer.
Clinton visited patients and their parents at the hospital before heading to nearby Horn Lake, Miss., for the unveiling of a new electric car. The hospital, founded by the late actor Danny Thomas, treats children from all over the world and is considered a leader in child disease research. It also hosts foreign physicians, who then apply what they learned from St. Jude’s doctors when they return to their home countries.
Clinton also spoke with doctors and praised them for their work on the Pediatric Cancer Genome Project. The project is attempting to find better ways to treat diseases that affect children, including cancers of the eye, blood, brain and nervous system….
“To do all this sequencing, to find all these genetic variances for various kinds of childhood cancers, and to find variances that tell you how to adjust treatment accordingly, it’s a great thing,” Clinton said. “I think it’s going to, first of all, continue to increase the child survival rate.”
Clinton said St. Jude’s research has an international impact.
“They’re immediately disseminating this information around the world, so doctors in very poor countries, once they’re trained to treat accordingly, can access the information,” Clinton said.
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