Download Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Brochure

Our New Facility
Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
NewYork-Presbyterian/Phyllis and David Komansky
Center for Children’s Health
Pediatric Hematology
and Oncology
Weill Cornell Medical Center
525 East 68th Street, Payson 695
New York, NY 10065
To make an appointment:
Flooded with natural
light and decorated
with light woods, a
cheerful New York City
mosaic, and colored glass
panels, our outpatient pediatric treatment center
is comfortable and welcoming to patients and
their families. Children and adolescents come
here for consultations, infusion treatments, and
follow-up exams.
Our program also includes a dedicated child life
specialist and an art therapist, who provide education,
help patients and their families navigate the hospital
experience, and ease children’s fears and anxieties
about diagnostic and treatment procedures.
(212) 746-3400
State-of-the-art care
for children and
adolescents with
blood disorders
and cancer
Visit us at:
nyp.org/kids/komansky/hemonc
The Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at
NewYork-Presbyterian/Phyllis and David Komansky
Center for Children’s Health at Weill Cornell Medical
Center provides comprehensive, state-of-theart care for children and adolescents with blood
disorders and cancer. Each patient’s treatment plan
is carefully tailored to his or her individual needs,
with the goal of returning children to lives that are
as normal and productive as possible.
Our program has grown substantially in recent years,
making it possible to treat more children with therapies
based on the latest medical advances. Today we are the
preeminent center in the New York, New Jersey, and
Connecticut area for treating children with noncancerous
(benign) blood disorders, such as platelet disorders,
bleeding and clotting problems, and thalassemia and other
hemoglobin disorders. We are planning to establish a stem
cell transplantation program primarily to treat children
with noncancerous blood disorders such as thalassemia,
sickle cell anemia, and immune deficiencies.
We have assembled specific healthcare teams for each
family of disorders that includes physicians, nurses and
nurse practitioners, and social workers with specialized
training working with young patients. In addition to
providing personalized patient care, our team members are
conducting basic science and clinical research to further
our understanding of blood disorders and cancer, with
the goal of applying research findings to make treatment
more effective. Our team also trains future generations of
specialists so we can continue to make progress in the field.
I invite you to learn more about what we have to offer.
For more information or to make an appointment, please
call us at (212) 746-3400.
Sujit Sheth, MD
Director, Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
NewYork-Presbyterian/Phyllis and David Komansky
Center for Children’s Health
PLATELET DISORDERS PROGRAM
HEMOSTASIS AND THROMBOSIS PROGRAM
THALASSEMIA AND HEMOGLOBINOPATHY PROGRAM
ONCOLOGY PROGRAM
This long-established and world-renowned program
is dedicated to the treatment of children with platelet
disorders. Patients come to us from across the country and
around the world for our expertise in treating immune/
idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), which remains a
major focus; other disorders of platelet number and function
are very well represented as well.
The Hemophilia Treatment Center (HTC) is one of the oldest in
the country, established in the 1970s by Margaret Hilgartner,
MD. Today, our team cares for children with bleeding disorders
such as hemophilia, von Willebrand disease, and other
rare inherited conditions, as well as those with blood clots,
including monitoring of children on anti-coagulation therapy.
The Comprehensive Thalassemia Center is the oldest and
one of the largest centers of its kind in the United States.
The Division is also recognized by New York State as a designated
Hemoglobinopathy Center. We provide comprehensive care to
children and adolescents with disorders such as the thalassemia
syndromes, sickle cell anemia, and other red blood cell disorders.
Individuals with thalassemia receive their transfusions in a new
state-of-the-art day hospital setting, with a multidisciplinary
team providing psychosocial services, thalassemia screening,
and genetic counseling.
Our pediatric cancer program focuses on treating children
and adolescents with a variety of malignancies, with a focus
on lymphoma or leukemia. An integrated team including
physicians, a nurse practitioner, social worker, and child life
therapist makes the experience as comfortable as possible
for the child and family.
• Patients with acute (short-term) problems may be treated
using standard therapies, while those with chronic
conditions receive more complex, ongoing therapy.
• We offer innovative therapies using thrombopoietic
agents whose use in children was pioneered in our center.
For example, we set the standard for the use in children
of romiplastin (Nplate®) and eltrombopag (Promacta®),
which promote platelet production.
• Patients also have access to a variety of clinical trials
assessing new treatment approaches.
OUR DOCTORS
James B. Bussel, MD leads the Platelet
Disorders Center. He is an international leader
in the field, authoring seminal papers that
have set the standard for the management of
platelet disorders over the years. In addition to
caring for patients, he is also actively involved
in clinical research, as well as education and
training of the next generation of physicians
and scientists.
. Beau Mitchell, MD and his colleagues in his
W
laboratory at the New York Blood Center focus
on understanding how platelets are made in
the bone marrow from stem cells, with the
hope that this understanding will permit the
generation of platelets in the laboratory from
stem cells. Advances in this area will also
guide the clinical management of patients
with platelet disorders in a direct bench-tobedside manner.
To make an appointment:
(212) 746-3400
• The pediatric thrombosis program addresses the rising
incidence of blood clots in children. Besides rare inherited
conditions with a predisposition to forming blood clots, young
patients with complex medical problems and implanted
shunts, stents, and surgical hardware remain at high risk.
We created a registry for any child with a blood clot, coupling
clinical information with data on potential risk factors from
procedures, immobility, genetics, lifestyle, medications, and
activity to predict a child’s risk of further complications. The
goal is to identify patients who may benefit from preventive
anti-coagulation treatment.
• The HTC continues to provide state-of-the-art comprehensive
multidisciplinary treatment for children and adolescents with
bleeding disorders. The goal is to normalize the child’s life as
much as possible through home infusions for prophylaxis,
counseling about activities and avoiding trauma, and
preventive care from a team that includes physical therapists,
orthopedic surgeons, and genetic counselors, in addition to
our pediatric physicians and nurses.
• The HTC is also conducting clinical trials of new factor
replacement products and other new treatments.
OUR DOCTORS
Nicole Kucine, MD is pioneering the thrombosis
registry. With support from a nurse practitioner,
she evaluates and monitors children with blood
clots on anti-coagulation therapy. She combines
compassionate medical care with research aimed
at improving outcomes and preventing diseaseassociated complications.
Catherine E. McGuinn, MD leads the HTC with
her special interest in bleeding disorders.
She has established herself in the national
network of HTC leaders and is involved in the
conduct of several multicenter trials of novel
clotting factor concentrates.
OUR DOCTORS
Nicole Kucine, MD heads the sickle cell program within the
Division. She has developed an algorithm for the appropriate and
rapid management of painful “crises” in these patients, and is an
advocate of the use of hydroxyurea to prevent complications and
improve overall quality of life.
Sujit Sheth, MD is Director of the Division and is an
expert in iron metabolism, thalassemia, and sickle
cell disease. He leads clinical research exploring novel
chelators and transfusion therapies, with a focus on
transfusional iron overload.
PROFESSOR EMERITUS
Patricia J. Giardina, MD, an internationally recognized
expert in thalassemia, serves as an advisor to the
program. She has been involved in clinical research on
novel chelators and a better understanding of the basis
for bone disease in thalassemia.
ADULT TRANSITION PROGRAM
We have partnered with our adult care colleagues to
create a special program for patients with thalassemia and
hemoglobinopathies, as well as those with disorders of bleeding
and clotting, transitioning from adolescence to adulthood.
John Chapin, MD heads the adult arm of the Hemophilia
Treatment Center and the Thalassemia Program.
The transition to a provider in the same building and
part of the same programs makes the process seamless,
and ensures the best continuity of care.
• We provide comprehensive diagnostic evaluation,
treatment, and follow-up care.
• Our center features a special program — in collaboration
with lymphoma specialists in adult oncology — for young
adults with lymphoma, who generally have better results
when treated using pediatric therapies.
• Researchers in our program are studying the biology of
cancer, with special emphasis on the development of
lymphomas and tumor metastasis. These efforts have a
translational focus, with the goal of using the information
gathered to design more targeted therapies.
• Eligible patients may have opportunities to participate in
clinical trials of promising new therapies.
OUR DOCTORS
Alexander Aledo, MD is Director of Pediatric
Oncology and the institutional Principal
Investigator for Children’s Oncology Group clinical
trials. He specializes in the care of young patients
with leukemia and lymphoma, bone tumors,
retinoblastoma, and sarcoma.
Lisa G. Roth, MD specializes in treating children,
adolescents, and young adults with lymphoma.
Her research focuses on identifying new
therapeutic targets based on her laboratory
studies of lymphoma biology. She is particularly
interested in identifying novel targeted therapies
that are less toxic than traditional chemotherapy.
David C. Lyden, MD, PhD is an internationally
renowned authority on the mechanisms by which
cancers metastasize (spread) throughout the
body. The goal is to develop less invasive methods
for identifying the risk of metastasis early on and
to tailor therapy based on this information.