St. Jude making room for Ukrainian cancer patients in Memphis while helping place children across Europe

The global arm of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis is taking a leading role in placing cancer patients from Ukraine in hospitals across Europe. The effort may begin sending kids to the U.S. in the next two weeks.

St. Jude is acting as a bridge between Ukrainian hospitals evacuating patients to the border and a number of hospitals in Poland, Germany, Italy and soon Spain. The children are triaged through a clinic set up in Poland that has transferred roughly 400 kids being treated for cancer. But there are as many as 200 left in Ukraine, according to St. Jude leaders, and others may have escaped to other countries and may still need help.

“Europe certainly has capacity to take on the volume of patients that we’re seeing,” says Dr. Asya Agulnik, who leads St. Jude’s Eurasia program.

But soon hospitals willing to provide free care will be overloaded, especially for patients who need the most specialized care, says Dr. Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo, director of St. Jude Global.

“So we’re trying to put together — similar to what we’ve done in Europe — a good coordinated plan, bringing institutions that are willing, able, capable of accepting these patients, and then creating a joint effort,” he tells WPLN News.

St. Jude in Memphis is making space in its own hospital for 20 to 25 children and organizers expect many other North American children’s hospitals will volunteer to accept patients.

But keeping kids closer to home remains the preference.

“We feel like the safest route right now is to stabilize these patients and keep them in Europe,” Rodriguez-Galindo says, noting that many of the children are traveling only with their mothers since their fathers were required to stay in Ukraine to help the war effort. “It’s in proximity to their country, their families.”