Pediatric Oncology

Justin N. Baker, MD, chief, Division of Quality of Life and Palliative Care, attending physician, Quality of Life Service, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, discusses approaching palliative care for children with cancer.

Santhosh A. Upadhyaya, MD, discusses how chemotherapy prior to radiation can improve cure rates, the importance of long-term follow-up in this patient population, and emerging research and treatment for pediatric ependymoma.

Matthew Ladra, MD, director, Pediatric Radiation Oncology, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center at Sibley Memorial Hospital, discusses the treatment of esthesioneuroblastoma in children.

The FDA has approved the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients 12 years and older with microsatellite instability-high or mismatch repair deficient metastatic colorectal cancer following progression on a fluoropyrimidine, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan.

Michael Link, MD, Lydia J. Lee Professor in Pediatric Cancer, professor, Pediatrics, Stanford Cancer Institute, and a 2018 Giant of Cancer Care in Pediatric Oncology, discusses the randomized trial testing nelarabine in patients with T-cell malignancies.

The European Commission has approved dasatinib for the treatment of children and adolescent patients aged 1 to 18 years with Philadelphia chromosome–positive chronic myeloid leukemia in chronic phase.

The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has recommended approval of tisagenlecleucel for the treatment of either adult patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma that is relapsed or refractory after 2 or more lines of systemic therapy, or patients up to 25 years of age with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia that is refractory, in relapse posttransplant, or in second or later relapse.

Justin N. Baker, MD, discusses the benefits of a holistic approach to end-of-life care in pediatric oncology, as well as the importance of teaching palliative care to the next generation of oncologists and hematologists.

The FDA has granted an accelerated approval to pembrolizumab for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with refractory primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma, or those who have relapsed after 2 or more prior lines of therapy.

Briana Patterson, MD, assistant professor, Division of Endocrinology, Aflac Cancer Center, Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, discusses the use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors in the treatment of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia.

All 3 patients with targeted gene fusions responded to the multikinase inhibitor entrectinib, according to a phase I study in children and young adults with advanced, previously treated central nervous system tumors.

A course of low-dose maintenance chemotherapy administered after standard-of-care intensive chemotherapy led to significant improvements in disease-free and overall survival in pediatric rhabdomyosarcoma.

Birte Wistinghausen, MD, associate professor, Pediatrics, medical director of the Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, the Kravis Children's Hospital and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discusses targeted therapies for the treatment of pediatric patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

The FDA has granted a priority review to a supplemental new drug application for eltrombopag (Promacta) for use in combination with standard immunosuppressive therapy as a frontline treatment for patients with severe aplastic anemia.

Susan N. Chi, MD, discusses the rationale for using tazemetostat in pediatric patients with INI1-negative rhabdoid tumors, as well as the future steps being taken with this treatment.

The FDA has granted crizotinib a breakthrough therapy designation for the treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer with MET exon 14 alterations, and for use in patients with relapsed/refractory ALK+ anaplastic large cell lymphoma.

Lindsay Frazier, MD, institute physician, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, associate professor of pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, discusses the Malignant Germ Cell International Consortium (MaGIC) in pediatric and rare tumors.

The FDA has granted a priority review to a new drug application for larotrectinib for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors with an NTRK gene fusion.

Birte Wistinghausen, MD, shares her insight on the potential for targeted therapies in the treatment of pediatric non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and the steps that the Children’s Oncology Group is taking to cure all patients with this disease.

A number of biological factors, including age at diagnosis, symptom duration at diagnosis, and HIST1H3B mutation status, are associated with survival ≥2 years in children and young adults with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, a brainstem malignancy with a median survival

An underlying autoimmune condition may have played a role in making a 13-year-old patient refractory to treatment for immune thrombocytopenia.

Ponatinib (Iclusig) induced a complete remission in one pediatric/adolescent patient with Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and demonstrated promising clinical activity in another.

Tocilizumab resolved cytokine release syndrome in patients with relapsed/refractory pediatric B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia without reducing the efficacy of tisagenlecleucel.

Justin N. Baker, MD, chief, Division of Quality of Life and Palliative Care, attending physician, Quality of Life Service, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, discusses the importance of symptom management in children with cancer.

Anna Farago, MD, PhD, discusses the biology of larotrectinib, as well as the importance of genetic testing for molecular alterations like TRK in patients with locally advanced solid tumors.

James I. Geller, MD, medical director, Kidney and Liver Tumors Program, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, discusses renal rhabdoid tumors in pediatric patients.

Adding nelarabine to escalating-dose methotrexate induced a 4-year disease-free survival rate of 91% in a cohort of pediatric and young adult patients with newly diagnosed T-cell cancers.

Briana Patterson, MD, assistant professor, Division of Endocrinology, Aflac Cancer Center, Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, discusses concerns regarding the use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors in the treatment of children with chronic myeloid leukemia.

Discontinuation of tyrosine kinase inhibitor treatment may be a possibility for children with chronic myeloid leukemia and, because they could be on-treatment for decades, treatment-free remission is even more important for pediatric patients than for adults.

Birte Wistinghausen, MD, medical director of the Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, the Kravis Children's Hospital and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discusses the treatment of pediatric patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.