Audrey Evans – mother of neuroblastoma, a force for good in the world

Audrey Evans, the doctor who practiced more than medicine…

This Women’s History Month, the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) honored Dr. Evans and her legacy announcing about a new upcoming film that will tell her story of medical revolution and humanitarian force:

“A changemaker, a pioneer, and a force for good in the world. Audrey Evans was a recipient of the SIOP Lifetime Achievement Award and was featured in the 2023 Almanac of Women Leaders in Paediatric Oncology.

On International Women’s Day, we’re proud to celebrate Audrey Evans’ legacy – and the new film telling her story, Audrey’s Children, in US theaters March 28, with international release to follow.” – International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) wrote on their LinkedIn page.

Dr. Audrey Evans for children

Dr. Evans is known as the “Mother of Neuroblastoma” for creating a new classification system in 1971, that evaluated a patient’s age, tumor site, and disease stage. This method enabled tailored treatment strategies and transformed the way neuroblastoma was identified and treated.

Back then, she was one of the few fighters to try and treat children with cancer with chemotherapy which was an unconventional approach and referred to as “poison”. Overall, her efforts in neuroblastoma helped reduce neuroblastoma-related deaths by 50%.

Born in York, England, in 1925, she chased the white coat after being treated for tuberculosis during her childhood. Dr. Evans broke barriers in medicine, becoming the only woman in her medical program at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. She moved to the U.S. on a Fulbright Scholarship, studying under Dr. Sidney Farber at Boston Children’s Hospital. Her career took her to the University of Chicago and later to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), where she became the first chief of oncology in 1969.

A few of her recognitions:

• The Best Doctors in America 1994,
• 1995 Distinguished Career Award from the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
• 1997 William Osler Patient Oriented Research Award from Penn.
• Elected an honorary member of the American Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology in 2008 (Almanac November 11, 2008), and an honorary fellow of her alma mater, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
• 2017, the International Society of Pediatric Oncology Lifetime Achievement Award

Endless empathy and kindness

Along with clinical and scientific breakthroughs her heart always had time for endless empathy and kindness. She was devoted to creating a comprehensive care system that would address child’s not only medical but psychological and social needs.

Thus, in 1994, she and Philadelphia Eagles general manager Jimmy Murray co-founded the first Ronald McDonald House in Philadelphia, a temporary home for sick children’s families where they could stay when their child would need extensive medical care away from home. So called for largely being funded by the fast-food chain McDonalds, Ronald McDonald House became a model for over 375 such houses in more than 45 countries!

The first Ronald McDonald House in Philadelphia

“I didn’t always get the job, but I always got in the room.” – Dr. Audrey Evans.

Today, for many aspiring young physicians she resembles the ideal doctor and the strong woman in medicine who showed that the most important thing in making a difference is the stubborn will and hard work to do it. Dr. Evans believed that pediatric oncology would offer her more space to practice medicine as a woman, and by entering that space she created even more of it and, in fact, filled it with life.

Sadly, she died on September 29, 2022, but her spirit will forever grow in the lives and families she saved and lifesavers she raised in medicine. Her legacy will forever inspire the upcoming generations of doctors to excellence and innovation powered by compassion and belief.

And her story will forever be known through an upcoming movie “Audrey’s Children” set to premiere on March 8 in the US, written by Julia Fisher Farbman, starring Natalie Dormer in her role. At OncoDaily, we can’t wait to see her story on the big screen! Thank you, Dr. Evans.

by Elen Baloyan, MD, Managing Editor of OncoDaily.

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