Pediatric cancer center receives funding increase
McALLEN - The Valley’s only pediatric cancer and hematology clinic just received a $200,000 boost.
The U.S. Senate passed an appropriations bill Tuesday that includes funding to expand the Vannie E. Cook Jr. Children’s Cancer and Hematology Clinic in McAllen, a joint project of Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.
The $200,000 appropriation will go toward hiring more medical staff and establishing an outreach program to help families cope with a child’s cancer diagnosis, said Laura Martinez Ilgun, a spokeswoman for the clinic.
In addition, the clinic, working with M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Harlingen, will use the money to launch a long-term study of childhood cancer cases on the Texas-Mexico border, Ilgun said.
Ilgun said the clinic is seeing “dramatic growth” in cancer diagnoses.
The clinic, which opened in 2001, has treated about 4,000 patients with cancer or blood disorders, she said.
