Childrens Center For Cancer & Blood Diseases

Childrens Hospital Los Angeles has cared for infants, children and adolescents with Cancer and Blood Diseases for more than 40 years and has grown to be the largest Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Program in the Western United States and the second largest Center in the nation.

During the last year (1997), more than 300 children and adolescents were newly diagnosed with cancer within the Center. In addition, 300 children and adolescents were diagnosed with blood diseases such as hemoglobinapathies (sickle cell disease, thalassemia) and clotting disorders (hemophilia). Center physicians performed 60 hematopoietic stem cell transplants in an 11-bed transplant unit. The Center had an average daily inpatient census of 44 children on the hematology/oncology service and a total of 16,000 outpatient visits. Half of all surgical procedures performed each year at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles involve infants, children and adolescents with cancer or blood diseases.

The Center has internationally recognized, multidisciplinary, clinical programs in leukemia, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, neuroblastoma, brain tumor, hemophilia, and sickle cell disease. These clinical programs are supported by both clinical and basic research. The Center also has nationally and internationally recognized research programs in biology of neural tumors, gene therapy, hematopoietic stem cell biology, and developmental therapeutics. Center physicians have led the way in research regarding psychosocial aspects of childhood cancer. In 1997, these research programs were supported by $11 million dollars per year in peer reviewed external funding, 70% of which was received from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Programs

The Childrens Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases has four program components
  • The Oncology Program

    - Bone and Soft Tissue Tumors
    - Leukemias and Lymphomas
    - Neural Tumors, including Brain Tumors, Neuroblastomas and Retinoblastomas
    - Autologous stem cell transplant for solid tumors

  • The Hematology Program

    - Red cell disorders, including acute and chronic anemia, with comprehensive programs in sickle cell anemias and the thalassemias
    - Hemophilia and other coagulation disorders
    - White cell defects
    - Bone marrow failure

  • Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Program

    - Autologous Bone Marrow and Peripheral Stem Cell Transplant for hematologic malignancies
    - Allogeneic transplants including related and unrelated bone marrow, peripheral blood and umbilical cord stem cell transplants


  • Pediatric Radiation Oncology

    - Fully equipped radiation oncology facility dedicated to children (e.g. 12MeV Linear Acclerator, Ximatron CX Radiation Simulator, Nucletron Radiation Treatment Planning System and Conformal Therapy in development).


Goals

The primary goals of the Center are to:
  • Provide the highest quality, multidisciplinary, medical and nursing care within an environment that also addresses the psychosocial needs of children and their families;
  • Evaluate new therapies, develop early intervention strategies and monitor outcomes of existing treatments to maximize the likelihood of cure and long-term survival while minimizing late effects;
  • Stimulate basic and translational research in the biology and cause of pediatric cancer and blood diseases and develop new therapeutic approaches based upon this research.
We achieve these goals in the following ways. First, each program is actively developing innovative therapies and treatment strategies derived directly from the program's translational and basic research. Second, each patient is treated by a multidisciplinary team of professionals that includes specialists from all fields dealing with children with cancer and blood diseases. And third, a pediatric nurse case manager coordinates multidisciplinary action plans and treatment protocols in conjunction with the physician.

Services

The Center includes all related medical and nursing specialists, dedicated support staff, and diagnostic and therapeutic services for children and adolescents. Each program emphasizes psychosocial support of patient and families by social workers, psychologists, play therapists, nutritionists and specialized nurse case managers.

The recently renovated 55-bed inpatient unit includes specialized facilities for bone marrow transplantation (11designated beds).

The Center's state-of-the-art ambulatory practice with outpatient clinic, day hospital and urgent care facility accommodates most procedures, even those requiring general anesthesia or conscious sedation, such as lumbar punctures and bone marrow aspirations. Additional outpatient practice sites in Encino, San Bernardino and Ventura County extend the reach of the Center's physicians to locations convenient to patients and referring physicians, with the goal of keeping patients close to home whenever possible. Center physicians also strive to work closely with primary care providers to deliver on-going care to patients in active follow-up.

Rapid consultation (based upon the patient's status) is a priority of Center physicians and is made possible by the comprehensive array of UCMG pediatric physicians including hematologists, oncologists, as well as other pediatric specialists, including all the surgical disciplines, radiologists, and pathologists.

Long-Term information, follow-up and evaluation is provided through the LIFE program for children who are 5 years disease free and at least 2 years off treatment.

The Center also has an on-site blood bank that provides all blood components, and has advanced diagnostic laboratories in molecular pathology and immunology and state of-the-art imaging facilities that include MRI, CT and nuclear medicine.

Major Accomplishments

The Center unites 45 of the country's leading physicians and scientists specializing in pediatric cancer and blood diseases and encompasses UCMG faculty from the Divisions of Hematology/Oncology, Research Immunology/Bone Marrow Transplantation and Radiation Oncology. These physicians and researchers have been pioneers in diagnosis, treatment and management of childhood cancers and blood diseases. Other accomplishments include:
  • The first provider of modern chemotherapy to children with leukemia in the Western United States;
  • The first protective environment units for children undergoing intensive chemotherapies;
  • The first to develop a multidisciplinary approach to pediatric sarcomas of the bladder and prostate which yields a much better survival rate and reduces the need to remove these organs, leaving the child anatomically intact;
  • Pioneering the use of bone marrow transplantation to treat pediatric blood diseases;
  • Pioneering in the use of bone marrow transplantation for genetic diseases;
  • Pioneering in the use of non-irradiation conditioning bone marrow transplant regimens for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) which can decrease long-term side effects of the treatment;
  • Pioneering in the use of bone marrow purging for neuroblastoma;
  • Pioneers in the treatment for neuroblastoma that has achieved 65 percent event free survival. This treatment is now used nationwide and includes a high dose chemotherapy and local irradiation protocol (no total body irradiation);
  • Pioneers in the use of retinoic acid as post transplant therapy for neuroblastoma. This treatment was later tested in a nationwide randomized trial with the Childrens Cancer Group and found to decrease recurrence of disease;
  • Currently pioneering the use of gene therapy for recurring brain tumors;
  • Developed combinations of laser technology and chemotherapy for treatment of retinoblastoma, significantly reducing the need for enucleation. Clinicians have heralded this as the most significant therapeutic advance in the treatment of retinoblastoma in 25 years;
  • The first pelvic bone salvage protocols for children with bone tumors;
  • Internationally recognized experts on white cell function and a number of disorders of granulocytes, including chronic granulomatous disease and neutropenias;
  • The first group of physicians to develop a comprehensive psychosocial support program specifically geared towards the consequences of childhood and adolescent cancers and blood diseases (model program).
The Childrens Center for Cancer & Blood Diseases is a principal participant in the Children's Cancer Group, the largest national organization for developing leading-edge pediatric cancer treatments. The Center also is the pediatric component of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and the USC Comprehensive Sickle Cell Program, as well as a key member of the Region IX Hemophilia Centers Program encompassing the western states and Hawaii.

The Childrens Center for Cancer & Blood Diseases is a National Center for molecular and pathologic diagnosis of neuroblastoma, as well as the National Center for purging of bone marrow specimens for transplantation in these cases. It houses one of the largest pediatric bone marrow transplant programs in the United States. Childrens Hospital Los Angeles has been a National Cancer Institute referral site since 1955.

PHYSICIANS

Division of Hematology/Oncology

Psychologists Division of Research Immunology/Bone Marrow Transplantation
HOW TO CONTACT US

The Childrens Center For Cancer & Blood Diseases welcomes your inquiries. To contact us you can:

Call the Center directly at (323) 669-2121

Write to us at

Childrens Center for Cancer & Blood Diseases
Childrens Hospital Los Angeles
4650 Sunset Blvd., #54
Los Angeles, CA 90027-6062


To contact the Division of Hematology/Oncology you can:

Call the Division directly at

(323) 669-2121

Write to us at

Division of Hematology/Oncology
Childrens Hospital Los Angeles
4650 Sunset Blvd., #54
Los Angeles, CA 90027-6062


To contact the Division of Research Immunology/Bone Marrow Transplantation you can:

Call the Division directly at

(323) 669-2546

Write to us at

Division of Research Immunology/Bone Marrow Transplantation
Childrens Hospital Los Angeles
4650 Sunset Blvd., #62
Los Angeles, CA 90027-6062


To contact Radiation Oncology you can:

Call the Radiation Oncology directly at

(323) 669-2417

Write to us at

Radiation Oncology
Childrens Hospital Los Angeles
4650 Sunset Blvd., #45
Los Angeles, CA 90027-6062

Physicians who wish to contact a faculty member, consult about a patient or refer a patient can also call 1-800-ASK-PACE (1-800-275-7223). Please note, this service is for physicians ONLY.



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