“Heartfelt thanks to Kiwanians for being part of the care and cure of every Doernbecher cancer patient.”
Dr. Linda Stork, MD
Professor of Pediatrics and Division Head Hematology Oncology
OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital
“Heartfelt thanks to Kiwanians for being part of the care and cure of every Doernbecher cancer patient.”
Dr. Linda Stork, MD
Professor of Pediatrics and Division Head Hematology Oncology
OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital
“Every time we contribute to the cure of a child with cancer, the Kiwanians are a part of it.”
Stacy Nicholson, MD, MPH
Pediatrician-in-Chief
Doernbecher Children’s Hospital
Our History
In 1985, Kiwanis members in the Portland area were invited to participate in raising money for Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. First with the Children’s Miracle Network, then with Neonatal Isolettes, to raise the money to buy and install the Bone Marrow Transplant unit for cancer treatment. This was completed in 1997 when Dr. Leonard Johnson, head of Doernbecher Children’s Hospital gave Kiwanis its biggest challenge: to initiate and fund a research fellowship program to end children’s cancer through the training of advanced Pediatric Hematology/Oncology research scientists. Kiwanis accepted the challenge and The Kiwanis Doernbecher Children’s Cancer Program was born to fund this fellowship program, dedicated to curing children of cancer by training the next generation of pediatric oncology specialists and researchers.
The Fellows
The Kiwanis Doernbecher Children’s Cancer Program fellowship doctors spend three years in post-residency training, treating patients and engaging in cutting edge research at OHSU, helping to find the causes and cures for pediatric cancer. During their first year, these young doctors work in the clinic at Doernbecher learning to treat children with this terrible disease. During their second and third years of fellowship, fellows are given at least 80% protected research time to allow them to be productive and become fully prepared for careers as independent clinical, translational, or basic science investigators. The goal of training during this time is for the fellow to develop the research skills and training necessary to ultimately become a productive and successful independent clinical or laboratory investigator. Today’s fellows will learn how to apply all different types of immune therapies including gene-based therapies, checkpoint inhibitors, and cancer directed antibodies that will forever change how children in the Pacific Northwest and around the world are treated for cancer.
Impact
Your donations empower the best and brightest young physicians to spend thousands of hours in their labs, searching not only for the causes and cures for cancer, but searching for ways to prevent cancer in children.
Since 1986, KDCCP has raised more than $4 million for all the kids with cancer at Doernbecher and around the world through the Children’s Oncology Group.
Why Doernbecher?
Doernbecher Children’s Hospital is the pediatric arm of Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU). OHSU is constantly testing the newest potential cancer therapies as one of only 21 National Cancer Institute pediatric phase 1 trials through the Children’s Oncology Group and other consortiums. This means that the children of Oregon and southwest Washington have access to the newest pediatric cancer treatments before they are more widely available. It also means that the Doernbecher Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellows get to participate in OHSU cancer labs during their research training.
Doernbecher Children’s Hospital cares for the vast majority of Oregon’s young cancer patients and is the only provider of bone marrow and stem cell transplants in Oregon and southwest Washington.
Without Doernbecher, children would have to go to Seattle or San Francisco for comparable care. It is the premier children’s hospital in Oregon and southwest Washington, providing the widest range of healthcare services for children in the region.
More than 300,000 times last year, children from all over Oregon and Southwest Washington were treated at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, because they could not get the highest level of treatment they needed anywhere else.
Kiwanis Doernbecher
Children's Cancer Program
13160 SE 172nd Ave, #230
Happy Valley, OR 97086
© 2023 Kiwanis Doernbecher Children’s Cancer Program.
As a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, contributions to Kiwanis Doernbecher Children’s Cancer Program are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.