New St. Jude CEO Dr. Charles Roberts says childhood cancer treatments are at 'the dawn of a new era'

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 the impact on the patient, Roberts said. Technology is also helping create treatments for more catastrophic childhood diseases beyond cancer.

Judy Habib, chair of the St. Jude Board of Governors, said Roberts’ emphasis on new treatment discoveries played a significant role in convincing the board to choose him as the hospital’s next leader after a global search.

“He combines the rigor of a researcher, the care of a clinician, and passion for our mission, making him the perfect person to lead one of the most accomplished pediatric research institutions in the world,” Habib said in a statement.

When he takes on his new role as St. Jude CEO, Roberts said he plans to continue his research, which has included confirming that certain genes suppress the growth of tumors.

“Keeping my hand in that is really important to make sure that I’m still at the cutting edge of understanding where the field is, what the opportunities are,” he said. “Working with other researchers is very useful input to me in helping steer our priorities. I’m a big believer in learning and growing and having input from others.”

Downing, who recruited Roberts from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 2015 to head St. Jude’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, said Roberts has built the center into a “national treasure,” according to the National Cancer Institute.

“Charlie represents a unique combination of physician, researcher and leader,” Downing said in a statement to The Associated Press, adding that Roberts is “the right person at the right moment to lead this institution into the future.”

Part of that future will require dealing with the financial constraints of treating childhood cancers, which receive less research investment from pharmaceutical companies that focus more on adult cancers, as well as federal cuts to scientific research funding. Roberts said St. Jude will maintain its policy of providing treatment at no cost to patients or their families. The hospital also plans to expand its services to make treatment available to more children around the world.

He said St. Jude is able to continue this work with philanthropic support from ALSAC, the hospital’s fundraising arm. According to an analysis by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, ALSAC raised an average of $2.3 billion a year in donations between 2021 and 2023, making it the second-largest fundraiser in the United States, behind only United Way.

“We can’t go all the way and completely replace what pharma does,” Roberts said. “But (donations) will for sure help us get more things to be successful.”

Ike Anand, president and CEO of ALSAC, said he welcomes Roberts’ partnership in their shared mission.

“Few people embody the promise of St. Jude quite like Charlie Roberts,” Anand said. “He understands the urgency that patients and families feel, the extraordinary possibilities emerging at the intersection of science and technology, and the trust that donors place in this mission every day.”

Marlo Thomas, St. Jude’s national outreach director and daughter of founder Danny Thomas, said Roberts embodies the hospital’s mission.

“We are closer than ever before to realizing my father’s dream that no child should die in the dawn of life, thanks in large part to the work of Charlie Roberts over the past decade,” she said in a statement. “I wish my father were here for this remarkable passing of the torch.”

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

The Roberts Laboratory is seen Monday, Aug. 17, 2026, in the Danny Thomas Research Center in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Kevin Wurm)

St. Jude Children's Medical Research Center CEO Dr. Charles Roberts' lab coat is seen on Monday, Aug. 17, 2026, in the Danny Thomas Research Center in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Kevin Wurm)

St. Jude Children's Medical Research Center CEO Dr. Charles Roberts stands for a portrait in the Roberts Laboratory at the Danny Thomas Research Center on Monday, Aug. 17, 2026, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Kevin Wurm)

St. Jude Children's Medical Research Center CEO Dr. Charles Roberts stands for a portrait in the Roberts Laboratory located in the Danny Thomas Research Center on Monday, Aug. 17, 2026, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Kevin Wurm)

St. Jude Children's Medical Research Center CEO Dr. Charles Roberts stands for a portrait in the Roberts Laboratory at the Danny Thomas Research Center on Monday, Aug. 17, 2026, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Kevin Wurm)

St. Jude Children's Medical Research Center CEO Dr. Charles Roberts stands for a portrait in the Roberts Laboratory at the Danny Thomas Research Center on Monday, Aug. 17, 2026, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Kevin Wurm)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces launched one of their biggest drone attacks on Russia since Moscow’s invasion over four years ago, firing almost 800 drones only two days after a similar salvo, officials said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a Russian missile strike on a village in northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region killed at least 10 people and wounded 17 others as the barrage demolished homes, officials said.

The countries are locked in an escalating duel of long-range aerial strikes. Fighting on the roughly 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line in eastern and southern Ukraine is restricted by large numbers of drones and ground robots threatening troop movements, and neither side is making significant battlefield progress, analysts say.

In the past year, Ukraine has devised and deployed domestically produced long-range drones for strikes deep inside Russia. Its drone technology has impressed governments and defense manufacturers around the world.

Officials in Kyiv aim to make the Russian public feel the war’s consequences and pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin into negotiating a peace settlement. Putin has so far shown no sign he intends to stop the invasion.

“Putin continues to drag out the war instead of accepting Ukraine’s realistic ceasefire proposals and ending the bloodshed,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X.

Russian air defenses overnight intercepted 791 Ukrainian drones over a number of regions, as well as annexed Crimea and the Black and the Azov seas, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said, in what was the second-largest drone attack since January 2025, according to an Associated Press tally.

More than 600 Ukrainian drones flew toward the Moscow region, where 180 were shot down, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said without elaborating.

Officials reported no deaths or major damage. Ukraine has increasingly launched swarms of hundreds of drones to try to overwhelm Russian air defenses.

In the region that surrounds the capital, three people were wounded, Gov. Andrei Vorobyov said.

Three people were also wounded in the adjacent Ryazan region where three private houses were damaged, Gov. Pavel Malkov said.

The overnight attack started a fire at a warehouse of Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer, in an industrial zone. Ukraine has repeatedly targeted the company, which it says helps supply the Russian military, an allegation Moscow denies.

Wildberries said its facility sustained “insignificant damage.”

Coverage of the attack in state and Kremlin-backed Russian media was mostly muted, as is often the case. Russia’s main TV channels — state-run Russia 1 and Channel One — did not mention the attack at all in their morning news bulletins.

But Russian state news agency RIA Novosti featured it among the main news on its website’s homepage, describing it as “one of the most large-scale attacks on Moscow since the beginning of the summer.”

State newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta on its website prominently featured a roundup of what Moscow regional Gov. Andrei Vorobyov reported about the attack, describing it as “massive” in the headline. Pro-Kremlin tabloid MK featured a news brief about it on its home page.

A Russian missile strike on the village of Pechenihy in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region killed 10 civilians, according to preliminary information, said Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional military administration.

Another 17 people were wounded, he said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it “a brutal attack” that damaged 10 homes, a cafe, a post office, a store and at least seven vehicles, according to Syniehubov.

“We will definitely respond to this Russian strike,” he said on social media.

Also, three people were killed and three others were wounded over the past day in Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Sumy region, Ukraine’s National Police said.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who took office last month, said the U.K. will continue to stand by Ukraine after Russia said that Kyiv’s reported use of British drones for attacks on Russian soil would bring unidentified consequences.

“We are providing support so that Ukraine can defend itself, and that’s been the British position all the way through this conflict by previous prime ministers," Burnham said. “It remains the case with me.”

British newspaper The Sunday Times reported that two U.K. companies made drones used by Ukraine to hit Russia.

Following the report, the Russian Embassy in the U.K. said in a statement that “London’s actions will inevitably carry consequences.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russian state TV that Moscow has the right to view British involvement in strikes on Russian territory as “participation in the war, with all the ensuing consequences.”

Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal. Brian Melley in London contributed.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

A street cleaner observes a daily nationwide minute of silence in memory of soldiers killed in the war with Russia, in Kyiv, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - In this photo, provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, rescuers carry a body that they removed from under the rubble of a private house following a Russian air attack in Pechenihy, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

A street cleaner observes a daily nationwide minute of silence in memory of soldiers killed in the war with Russia, in Kyiv, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

In this photo, provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, fire is seen on the site of a Russian air attack in Pechenihy, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo, provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, rescuers carry a body that they removed from under the rubble of a private house following a Russian air attack in Pechenihy, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov's official telegram channel, flame and smoke rise from a construction site after a Ukrainian drone attack in an undisclosed area in the Moscow region, Russia, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov's office via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, fire is seen on the site of a Russian air attack in Pechenihy, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)