Audrey Evans

Audrey Elizabeth Evans (6 March 1925 – 29 September 2022) was a British-born American pediatric oncologist who was known as the "Mother of Neuroblastoma".

[1] After finishing her degree in 1953, she applied and received the Fulbright Fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital.

[2] In 1955, after she had finished medical training in the United States, she returned to England to practice specialty pediatrics.

[7] From 1969 to 1989, she served as chair of the Division of Oncology at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and in 1972 was appointed a professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

[6] Evans also instituted and chaired the early meetings for Advances in Neuroblastoma Research on 30 May 1975, as a series of symposia held at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

The conference is designed to promote the exchange of information among investigators studying Neuroblastoma biology, diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy.

[10] Evans and D'Angio were the first to describe the phenomenon of spontaneous regression of widely spread neuroblastoma that they later dubbed "4S disease".

[6] As CHOP's pediatric oncology department grew, people were coming from a wide range of places to be treated there.

Evans realized that the families of the children that were being treated had no place to stay and would often get separated to different locations.

[3] In the early 1970s[11] Evans was introduced to The Philadelphia Eagles owner, when the team had raised $100,000 for children with cancer in honor of one of the player's daughters who had leukemia.

[12] Evans accepted the money from Eagles owner, Jimmy Murray, and let him know that she needed $32,000 more in order to buy a house for the children and their families.

[2] Evans was a deeply religious woman: “The pillars of Audrey's career were faith and science.

"[11] In 2005, Evans married Giulio John D'Angio, at seven o'clock in the morning so they were able to make it to work 90 minutes later.