Cheers for CHOP Raises $735,000

Event Co-chairs Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s sixth annual Cheers for CHOP raised $735,000 to support pediatric brain tumor research and care. More than 600 donors, clinicians and friends of CHOP attended the event on Saturday, March 2, at The Fillmore Philadelphia, and enjoyed a live performance by Grammy-nominated artist Montell Jordan.

The sixth annual Cheers for CHOP was hosted by Friends of CHOP, a dynamic group of Philadelphia’s most social and philanthropic young influencers who are committed to vibrant fundraising efforts that support CHOP’s mission of providing exemplary patient care, spearheading innovative research, and sharing knowledge with the world. Over the past five years, Cheers for CHOP has raised more than $2.7 million to benefit hospital programs such as Orthopaedics, Pulmonary Medicine and Child Life.           

Every dollar raised this year will fuel breakthroughs in the fight against brain tumors, the deadliest childhood cancer. The Neuro-Oncology Program at CHOP, led by Dr. Michael Fisher, is a group of seven full-time, dedicated pediatric neuro-oncologists, and is one of the largest groups dedicated to treating pediatric brain and spinal tumors, neurofibromatosis and associated tumors. This year alone, the neuro-oncologists at CHOP will treat nearly 1,500 cancer patients during more than 4,600 visits to the hospital.

As doctors work tirelessly to manage and treat these patients, researchers from CHOP’s Center for Data Driven Discovery in Biomedicine (D³b) are actively involved in ongoing pediatric brain tumor research through the Children’s Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium (CBTTC). The CBTTC is a collaborative, multi-institutional research program dedicated to the study of childhood brain tumors. By collecting information about childhood brain tumors and creating the largest repository of brain tumor tissue in the world, research scientists are able to study the tumor cells of more than 30 histologically different types of childhood brain tumors. Through CHOP’s commitment to translational research, these findings are able to move into clinical trials within the Section of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology in order to speed discovery and personalize treatment.