• St. Jude has treated children from all 50 states and from around the world.
• On average, 7,800 active patients visit the hospital each year, most of whom are treated on an outpatient basis.
• St. Jude has 78 inpatient beds and treats upwards of 260 patients each day.
• St. Jude is the first and only pediatric cancer center to be designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute.
• St. Jude is the first institution established for the sole purpose of conducting basic and clinical research and treatment into catastrophic childhood diseases, mainly cancer.
• Research findings at St. Jude are shared freely with doctors and scientists all over the world.
• The medical and scientific staff published more than 680 articles in academic journals in 2010, more than any other pediatric cancer research center in the United States. St. Jude’s researchers are published and cited more often in high impact publications than any other private pediatric oncology institution in America.
• No family ever pays St. Jude for anything.
• Parents magazine named St. Jude as one of the top children's cancer care hospitals in the U.S. for two consecutive surveys.
• St. Jude has developed protocols that have helped push overall survival rates for childhood cancers from less than 20 percent when the hospital opened in 1962 to 80 percent today.
• In 1962, the survival rate for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common form of childhood cancer, was 4 percent. Today, the survival rate for this once deadly disease is 94 percent, thanks to research and treatment protocols developed at St. Jude.
• The daily operating cost for St. Jude is $1.8 million, which is primarily covered by public contributions.
• During the past five years, 81 cents of every dollar received has supported the research and treatment at St. Jude.
• St. Jude recently completed an extensive expansion program that bolstered the hospital’s research and treatment efforts, while more than doubling the size of its original campus. The campus now has 2.5 million square feet of research, clinical and administrative space dedicated to finding cures and saving children. The expansion included the Children’s GMP, LLC, currently the nation’s only pediatric research center on-site facility for the research and production of highly specialized treatments and vaccines; an expanded Department of Immunology; and a new Department of Chemical Biology and Therapeutics for discovery of new drugs.
• The Chili’s Care Center, opened in November 2007, integrates patient care and research where rapidly evolving CT (computerized tomography) and MR (magnetic resonance) technologies keep St. Jude at the cutting edge for radiation therapy in a pediatric/adolescent setting. Additionally, a state-of-the-art cyclotron enables St. Jude researchers to undertake many important new PET (positron emission tomography) studies. These imaging techniques facilitate the rapid evaluation of new therapeutic approaches and help choose those most likely to be successful.
• St. Jude pioneered a combination of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery to treat childhood cancers.
• Peter C. Doherty, PhD, of St. Jude Immunology, won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1996. He shares the award with Rolf M. Zinkernagel, MD, of the University of Zurich. Their findings have led to breakthroughs in the understanding and treatment of viral infections and cancers, and in the development of organ transplant procedures and vaccines.
• St. Jude patients are referred by a physician, and generally have a disease currently under study and are eligible for a current research protocol on clinical research trials.
• St. Jude researchers and doctors are treating children with pediatric AIDS, as well as using new drugs and therapies to fight infections.
• St. Jude was the first institution to develop a cure for sickle cell disease with a bone marrow transplant and has one of the largest pediatric sickle cell programs in the country.
• St. Jude is a World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza Viruses in Animals and Birds.
• St. Jude was the first facility outside the National Institutes of Health to receive federal approval for research involving human gene therapy.
• The St. Jude faculty includes three National Academy of Sciences members: Peter C. Doherty, PhD, of Immunology; Charles Sherr, MD, PhD, of Tumor Cell Biology; and Robert Webster, PhD, of Infectious Diseases. Sherr and Brenda Schulman, PhD, Structural Biology, hold the coveted title of Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators.
• The St. Jude faculty also includes five members of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences: William E. Evans, St. Jude director and chief executive officer; Arthur Nienhuis, MD, of Hematology and former director and CEO; Charles Sherr, MD, PhD, of Tumor Cell Biology; Nobel Laureate Peter Doherty, PhD, of Immunology; and Mary Relling, PharmD, Pharmaceutical Sciences chair.
• St. Jude is the national coordinating center for the National Cancer Institute-funded Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium. St. Jude is the coordinating center for the nationwide Children’s Cancer Survivor Study, funded by the National Cancer Institute. St. Jude is the national coordinating center for the National Cancer Institute-sponsored Pediatric Drug Discovery Consortium. St. Jude is the coordinating center for a national study of sickle cell disease treatment funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Cancer Institute.

Name: Camryn

Diagnosis: Camryn was found to suffer from Wilms tumor in January 2011.

Camryn is dressed in a purple shirt with a matching purple bow in her hair. In each hand, she holds a purple and white pom pom. An energetic little girl whose family has nicknamed her Diva, she waits on the sidelines with the other little cheerleaders, their energy palpable. When the team they're rooting for, the Tomcats, scores on the field, Camryn shakes the pom poms wildly and jumps up and down, chanting loudly for her team.

Two years ago, when Camryn was found to suffer from Wilms tumor, a type of kidney cancer, her parents worried their little girl, so full of life, might never feel good again.

In January 2011, Camryn woke up one morning screaming and clutching her side. Her parents thought she had appendicitis and rushed her to the emergency room. The doctors thought it was appendicitis, too, but a CT scan soon revealed that there were several tumors on Camryn's right kidney and one large tumor on her left kidney.

Camryn's family was quickly sent to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, where her treatment included chemotherapy, surgery to remove the tumors and radiation. Throughout Camryn's fight with cancer, doctors worked to keep her kidneys functioning so that she wouldn’t need dialysis.

In the beginning, Camryn was scared, but St. Jude helped her with that. "Every time we tried to explain cancer to Camryn, I was about to cry," said Camryn's mom. "So the Child Life specialist came in, and she explained everything to Camryn so that she could understand it."

When people asked Camryn why she didn't have hair, she told them that it was because of the medicine that "gets the bad stuff out of my belly."

Camryn's mother is an elementary school teacher, and her father is a 4-H instructor getting his master’s degree in agriculture education. They have good insurance, but the family was relieved that whatever insurance didn't cover, St. Jude did. "I've heard so many times that people have had to declare bankruptcy or lost their homes when a family member gets sick, but St. Jude takes care of its families," Camryn’s mom said.

Camryn is now done with treatment and visits St. Jude for regular checkups. She loves cheering for the Tomcats, dancing and singing. Camryn, who is in first grade, has even started to write her own songs. When she grows up, Camryn wants to be a dance teacher.

Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman have a marriage made in heaven. According to their pastor at The Cathedral of the Incarnation, the couple's faith and love for each other gives them strength. “If I were to hear that they were breaking up, I think I would just have to give up my job. You know I’ve been doing this for 30 years, it’s the whole body language thing you just see it. Their body language suggests that they are a man and woman madly in love. The way you see them talk about the children . . . just to see them strolling about the campus they are like a couple that are clicking -- it’s obvious.”

A new study shows that regularly eating fast food isn't just bad for your waistline, it can also damage your liver in a big way.

Researchers found that changes in liver chemistry have a lot in common with the effects of hepatitis, which can ultimately cause liver failure.

The worst of the worst are french fries, because of the extra ingredients restaurants add – especially the sugar that gets thrown into the mix to make the fries extra crispy.

I am so tired of being sick that I will try anything.  Since many of you have told me you are in the same boat, I will share what I saw on Dr. Oz's show yesterday.  They did research on the benefits of grape juice on your immune system.  For only one week, one group drank a 1/2 cup every day, while the second group did not.  At the end of one week, the people that drank the grape juice had increased their T-cell count.  I will try whatever!