The new head of America’s top children’s hospital sees ‘the dawn of a new era’ for kid cancer treatment

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital named Dr. Charles W. M. Roberts its new president and chief executive officer Tuesday, replacing Dr. James R. Downing, who led the nonprofit for 12 years.

Roberts, who has been director of St. Jude’s Comprehensive Cancer Center and an executive vice president, will begin his new job on Jan. 1, as Downing moves into a faculty role in the hospital’s Global Pediatric Medicine department.

When actor and philanthropist Danny Thomas founded St. Jude in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1962, the survival rate for childhood cancer patients was around 20%. Today, it is more than 80% and Roberts says the hope is for all childhood cancers to be easily treatable someday, with major strides toward that goal are within reach.

“I’m really excited because I think we are at the dawn of a new era,” Roberts told The Associated Press in an interview. “In the next several years, I believe we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to achieve much more of Danny’s dream than ever before. And I’m excited to take us there.”

The opportunity comes through a convergence of technological advances that are creating treatments that kill childhood cancers more effectively, while also reducing...