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Riley Children’s Foundation, the fundraising arm of Riley Children’s Health, has been awarded a $10 million gift from Walther Cancer Foundation, an Indianapolis-based not-for-profit that supports cancer research, the two organizations announced Friday.
Walther will provide a one-for-one match for donors who establish endowed children’s cancer research funds at Riley Children’s Foundation, a move that could result in at least $20 million for research of new treatments of children’s cancers.
The funds will be used to support cancer research at Indiana University School of Medicine, the research partner to Riley Children’s Health.
Riley officials said cancer is the leading disease-related cause of death among children and adolescents, with more than 15,000 youngsters diagnosed annually in the United States. That includes about 315 Hoosier children each year, many of whom are cared for by Riley.
Riley Children’s Health is the pediatric system of hospital giant Indiana University Health, with over 50 locations across the state, including its downtown pediatric anchor, Riley Hospital for Children.
“While we have made important improvements in the care of children with cancer, some types of childhood cancers remain largely incurable,” Dr. D. Wade Clapp, chair of the pediatrics department at IU School of Medicine and physician-in-chief at Riley Children’s Health, said in written remarks.
He continued: “Even when cancer can be cured, the therapies are brutal and leave children with lifelong chronic health conditions. This extraordinary commitment from Walther, along with other the other donations it will spur, will help our researchers develop more effective and less toxic treatment.”
The IU-research team conducts a wide spectrum of children’s cancer research, from laboratory investigations to clinical research studies. Among other breakthroughs, the researchers have contributed to the approval of the first-ever drugs to treat neurofibromatosis type 1, the most common genetic disorder that causes debilitating tumors along nerves, Riley said.
“Research is key to ending suffering from cancer, but cancer can be extraordinarily expensive, and too many brilliant ideas never get off the ground because there isn’t enough funding,” Elizabeth A. Elkas, Riley Children’s Foundation president and CEO, said in written remarks.
The Walther Foundation is named for the late Dr. Joseph E. Walther, an Indianapolis physician who founded the not-for-profit Winona Memorial Hospital in 1966. Winona operated for more than three decades on North Meridian Street before closing in 2004.
In 1985, he established the Walther Cancer Institute, which merged into the Walther Cancer Foundation, an independent, private grant-making institution, in 2007.
“It’s especially important that we focus on new and better treatments for children’s cancer, Thomas W. Grein, the foundation’s president and CEO, said in written remarks, “because we have the opportunity to give children decades more life and to improve the quality of those years.”
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