Pediatric cancer patients evacuated from Ukraine arrive in the United States

Four Ukrainian children with cancer are now receiving medical care at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday.

After Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, the young patients could no longer receive their cancer treatments. The children, who are between the ages of 9 months and 9 years old, were first evacuated to Poland with members of their immediate family, before being airlifted to the United States.

St. Jude said in a statement it is the first U.S. hospital to receive Ukrainian patients, and in addition to getting cancer care, the kids will receive "trauma-informed psychosocial therapy" and schooling. The State Department, which supported the airlift of the children, said they "represent a small proportion of the thousands of patients whose cancer treatment has been interrupted and, who, even amid a pandemic and with compromised immune systems, were forced to flee their homes."

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The United Nations estimates that since Feb. 24, at least 10 million Ukrainians have been displaced from their homes. St. Jude Global's SAFER Ukraine program is working with more than 600 Ukrainian cancer patients, helping them get get their medical records translated and find cancer care in other countries.