About the Young Associates Board

The Young Associate Board (YAB) is a tax-exempt, non-profit affiliated organization of Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago that is committed to providing hope for children with brain tumors.

The YAB was established in 2000 as a Junior Board of the Gus Foundation. The YAB raises funds through activities aimed at young professionals such as social events, special events, and the annual 5K Run for Gus in Chicago’s Lincoln Park. Additionally, the Young Associates Board organizes a variety of service projects that directly benefit children with brain tumors and their families.

The Young Associates Board is the legacy organization of the Gus Foundation, and continues to support critical research that is either centered at, or collaborated with Children's Memorial. This research offers the greatest opportunity to develop cures, while providing all children with the most sophisticated, appropriate and prevailing treatments available.

The Mission of the Young Associates Board
The YAB provides hope for children with brain tumors by raising funds for research and family support services at Children’s Memorial Hospital.

Pediatric brain tumors are the deadliest form of cancer in children, and are fatal for almost half of the 2,900 children diagnosed every year. Despite this fact, only $1 million is given annually to this cause by government agencies. Therefore, it is up to organizations like the YAB to provide funds to help improve the lives of children fighting this disease and to support the cutting edge treatments and critical research that will hopefully lead to a cure.

YAB Funding
The YAB is proud to provide funds to support research for Interstitial Chemotherapy:

A team led by Dr. Stewart Goldman, Medical Director of Neuro-oncology at Childern's Memorial Hospital, and Tadanori Tomita MD Yeager Professor and Chairmen Department of Pediatric Neurosurgery continue to investigate the use of convection-enhanced delivery of interstitial chemotherapy, a process that delivers a very small amount of chemotherapy directly into the brain tumor itself, thus avoiding the need for a much higher dose of chemotherapy circulating through the body. Initial findings indicate promising results in laboratory models. So far, the program has tested several drugs administerd interstitially, including an intravenous forma of carboplatin and etoposide, drugs that shows signs of promise for treating recurrent central nervous system tumors. There are plans to present the findings of our work at a spring conference.

A new reseracher, Akihide Kondo, MD, has recently joined the program to continue these studies. Dr. Kondo comes to Children’s Memorial from the Juntendo University School of Medicine in Japan, where he serves as an instructor in the Department of Neurosurgery. He will conduct further tests to examine the neurotxicity and efficacy of various chemotherapeutic agents when administerd interstitially.

YAB Service
Throughout the year, YAB members partner with Children’s Memorial to provide service-oriented events and programs supporting the children and families in the hematology/oncology clinics. Events include:

Holiday parties at the brain tumor and hematology/oncology clinics
Book, magazine and toiletry drives
Summer Luau in Oz Park
Kohl House Dinners

History of the Gus Foundation
The Gus Foundation was established in 1995 by the family and friends of Gus Evangelides, who died after a courageous battle with a malignant brain tumor in April of 1995 - three months shy of his second birthday. Since that time, the Gus Foundation raised more than $4 million for pediatric brain tumor research and became one of Children’s Memorial Hospital’s largest affiliated organizations.

The Gus Foundation funded an Endowed Fellowship and an Endowed Chair in Neuro-Oncology. These two endowments help train the next generation of pediatric brain tumor treatment and research specialists and ensure a top pediatric oncologist who specializes in brain tumors will have the time and responsibility to treat patients and engage in research.

Although the Gus Foundation closed its doors in 2006, the Young Associates Board continues as its legacy organization and continues to support critical research that is either centered at, or collaborated with Children’s Memorial.

A Children's Memorial Hospital Affiliated Organziation