Cancer

ASCAT Conference Attendees

Children’s National represented at ASCAT conference in London

ASCAT Conference Attendees

From left to right: Lisa Thaniel, Ph.D., Brittany Moffitt, Deepika Darbara, M.D., Steven Hardy, Ph.D., Andrew Campbell, M.D., Barbara Speller-Brown, DNP, Stefanie Margulies and Karen Smith-Wong all represented Children’s National at the ASCAT Conference in London.

Deepika Darbari, M.D., Andrew Campbell, M.D., and Steven Hardy, Ph.D., represented Children’s National at the Annual Sickle Cell Disease and Thalassemia (ASCAT) Conference in London in late October. The theme of this year’s conference was Sickle Cell Disease and Thalassemia: Bridging the Gap in Care and Research.

Dr. Darbari, a Children’s National hematologist, was the featured Grand Rounds speaker and led a pain management symposium. Dr. Darbari studies complications of sickle cell disease with an emphasis on pain. She conducts clinical and translational studies to better understand sickle cell pain and its management. She addressed the topics of pain mechanisms and phenotypes in sickle cell disease during her symposium.

Dr. Campbell, Director of the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Disease Program at Children’s National, has served on the steering committee for this annual international conference for the past two years, working alongside colleagues from across the globe to bring together multiple experts who work with children with blood disorders. Dr. Campbell remarks, “I’m pleased to promote and be a part of [this conference] because it’s one of the best sickle cell/thalassemia conferences in the world pushing the field forward with international representation.” He spoke at the conference during Dr. Darbari’s symposium, discussing sickle cell disease pain around the globe.

Dr. Hardy, a pediatric psychologist in the divisions of Blood and Marrow Transplant, Blood Disorders (Hematology) and Oncology and the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s National, also presented at the conference on his abstract “Computerized Working Memory Training Improves Cognition in Youth with Sickle Cell Disease.” His abstract received the Best Oral Abstract Award at the conference and was awarded a 500 pound prize. In his work at Children’s National, Dr. Hardy provides evidence-based psychological assessments and treatments for children with cancer, sickle cell disease and other blood disorders, as well as those patients undergoing bone marrow transplants.

Poster presentations were also given by Barbara Speller Brown, NP, DNP, Lisa Thaniel, MSW, Ph.D., Brittany Moffitt, MSW, and Stefanie Margulies, senior clinical research coordinator, all representing Children’s National at the ASCAT Conference.

Eugene Hwang

Unexpected heterogeneity in CNS-PNET patients treated as a single entity

Eugene Hwang

“We found that some patients diagnosed with standard tools underwent much more treatment than necessary or intended,” said Eugene Hwang, M.D.

Eugene I. Hwang, M.D., a neuro-oncologist in the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, and other researchers at Children’s National Health System, Seattle Children’s Hospital and Research Institute, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Hopp-Children’s Cancer Center at the NCT Heidelberg recently published the results of a clinical trial focusing on children with histologically diagnosed supratentorial primitive neuroectodermal tumors (CNS-PNET) and pineblastomas (PBLs).

The clinical trial, published online October 17, 2018 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, included children and adolescents aged 3-22 with these brain cancers who were randomly assigned to receive carboplatin during radiation and/or isotretinoin after the standard intensive therapy (high-dose craniospinal radiation and months of inpatient chemotherapy).  Importantly, because each patient was treated prospectively according to the clinical trial design, the conclusions related to tumor biology were felt to be less affected by varied treatment plans.

“This trial really highlighted the importance of new molecular testing methods in accurately diagnosing some of the brain cancers included in the trial. We found that some patients diagnosed with standard tools underwent much more treatment than necessary or intended.” says Dr. Hwang. “Kids who aren’t receiving the right form of cancer treatment may not get better despite months and months of intensive treatment.”

During this clinical trial, 85 participants with institutionally-diagnosed CNS-PNETs/PBLs were enrolled. Out of the 60 patients with sufficient tissue, 31 were non-pineal in location, 22 of which represented tumors that did not fit in the diagnoses intended for trial inclusion.

The researchers discovered that patient outcomes across each molecularly-diagnosed tumor type were strikingly different. Patients with molecularly-confirmed supratentorial embryonal tumors/PBLs exhibited a five-year event free survival (EFS) and an overall survival rate of 62 percent and 78.5 percent, respectively. However, patients with molecularly-classified high-grade gliomas (HGGs) had a five-year EFS of 5.6 percent and OS of 12 percent, showing no benefit even with the chemotherapy and craniospinal radiation.

Researchers determined that for patients with CNS-PNETs/PBLs, prognosis is considerably better than previously assumed when molecularly-confirmed HGG are removed. Dr. Hwang and co-authors concluded that molecular diagnosis can greatly aid standard pathological diagnostic tools, preventing unnecessary intensive therapy for some patients while enabling more rational treatment for others.

“The findings from our clinical trial have highlighted the immense challenges of histology-based diagnosis for some types of pediatric brain tumors, and the enormous importance this has for children with brain cancer,” Dr. Hwang says. “We hope that ultimately our study will pave the way for molecular profiling to become a standard component of initial diagnosis.”

Maureen E Lyon

Maureen E. Lyon, Ph.D., ABPP, lauded for outstanding excellence in patient-centered advance care planning

Maureen E Lyon

Maureen E. Lyon, Ph.D., a principal investigator at Children’s Center for Translational Science, will be honored with a “Recognition Award for Excellence and Innovation in Research” by Respecting Choices for outstanding excellence in patient-centered advance care planning and shared decision-making.

Respecting Choices will present the award on Oct. 26, 2018, during its “National Share the Experience Conference” in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Lyon’s expertise is in advance care planning and shared decision-making for children and adolescents with life-threatening illnesses and their families, a field that has transformed in recent decades in order to pave better paths forward for difficult but necessary conversations.

“It came from my clinical experience,” Lyon says. “In the early days of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic in the U.S., everything, absolutely everything, was done to keep the kids alive in the hopes that some new drug would come around the corner, and we could bring them back from the brink. I remember one of the young boys saying to his case manager that he didn’t want all of these interventions. But he hadn’t told his family.”

That young man’s eye-opening comments – and learning that Children’s National Health System had a policy that teenagers were to be included in conversations about their own advance care planning – inspired Lyon to conduct a series of surveys involving adolescents, families and clinicians.

“I remember sitting down with friends and saying ‘There must be a better way to do this. Everyone is afraid to broach the subject,’ ” Lyon recalls. So, she conducted surveys of all healthy kids coming through Children’s adolescent clinic and kids diagnosed with HIV, cancer and sickle cell disease.

“It turned out the kids did want to talk about it. That was the first thing. Families told us they wanted help breaking the ice. Physicians felt it wasn’t their role – many doctors felt their role was to save people – or, they didn’t have the training,” she says.

Through a series of focus groups with youths living with HIV, families and community members, Lyon adapted the adult-centric Respecting Choices model to create a three-session intervention to better meet the advance care planning needs of youths and adolescents living with HIV.

Lyon’s recent work includes a single-blinded, randomized study published Oct. 19, 2018, in Pediatrics that finds the more families understand the end-of-life treatment preferences expressed by adolescents living with HIV, the less likely these youth are to suffer HIV-related symptoms, compared with youths whose families do not understand their end-of-life care goals.

She also has adapted the Respecting Choices intervention to facilitate its use with children diagnosed with cancer. More recently, she has adapted the model for use by parents of children with rare diseases who cannot communicate on their own.

“For the other life-threatening health conditions, we worked to support adolescents in expressing their advance care planning choices in their own voices. With rare diseases, we’re shifting gears,” she adds.

Published research indicates a sizable proportion of pediatric patients who die in hospitals now have confirmed or suspected rare diseases, she says. During a pilot involving seven families, many parents multitasked during the conversations, taking pauses to attend to various alarms as they sounded, to complete regular feedings and to contend with their child’s petit mal seizures.

“The level of burden of taking care of these children with terminal illnesses was pretty overwhelming,” she says. “Still, families were not too burdened to participate in advance care planning, but first wanted to identify their priority palliative care needs and to develop a support plan to meet those needs. We also had more fathers involved.”

Jeffrey Dome

The impact of surveillance imaging to detect relapse in Wilms tumor patients

Jeffrey Dome

Dr. Jeffrey Dome, M.D., Ph.D., vice president, Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders.

The Children’s Oncology Group published an article in the Journal of Clinical Oncology looking at the impact that surveillance imaging has on patients with Wilms tumor (WT), the most common kidney cancer in children.

Despite the risks and costs, the use of computed tomography (CT) for routine surveillance to detect recurrence in patients with WT has increased in recent years. The rationale for using CT scans rather than chest x-rays (CXR) and abdominal ultrasounds (US) is that CT scans are more sensitive, thereby enabling recurrences to be detected earlier.

In this study, led by Jeffrey S. Dome, M.D., Ph.D, vice president of the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s National Health System, researchers conducted a retrospective analysis of patients enrolled in the fifth National Wilms Tumor Study (NWTS-5) who experienced relapse to determine if relapse detection with CT scan correlates with improved overall survival compared with relapse detection by CXR or abdominal US.

A total of 281 patients with favorable-histology WT (FHWT) were included in the analysis. The key findings of the study were that:

  • Among patients with relapse after completion of therapy, outcome was improved in patients whose relapse was detected by surveillance imaging rather after signs and symptoms developed.
  • A higher disease burden at relapse, defined by the diameter of the relapsed tumor and the number of sites of relapse, was associated with inferior survival.
  • Relapses detected by CT scan were detected earlier and were smaller on average than relapses detected by CXR or US.
  • However, there was no difference in survival between patients whose relapse was detected by CT versus CXR or US.

An analysis of radiation exposure levels showed that surveillance regimes including CT scans have about seven times the radiation exposure compared to regimens including only CXR and US. Moreover, the cost to detect each recurrence reduced by 50 percent when CXR and US are used for surveillance.

“The results of this study will be practice changing,” said Dr. Dome, one of the doctors leading the clinical trial. “The extra sensitivity that CT scans provide compared to CXR and US do not translate to improved survival and are associated with the downsides of extra radiation exposure, cost and false-positive results that can lead to unnecessary stress and medical interventions,” he added. “Although counter-intuitive, the more sensitive technology is not necessarily better for patients.”

In conclusion, the doctors found that the elimination of CT scans from surveillance programs for unilateral favorable histology Wilms tumor is unlikely to compromise survival. However, it could result in substantially less radiation exposure and lower health care costs. Overall, the risk-benefit ratio associated with imaging modalities should be considered and formally studied for all pediatric cancers.

Learn more about this research in a podcast from the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Affiliations

Elizabeth A. Mullen, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Boston, MA; Yueh-Yun Chi and Emily Hibbitts, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL; James R. Anderson, Merck Research Laboratories, North Wales, PA; Katarina J. Steacy, University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore, MD; James I. Geller, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre, Cincinnati, OH; Daniel M. Green, St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN; Geetika Khanna, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO; Marcio H. Malogolowkin, University of California at Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, Sacramento, CA; Paul E. Grundy, Stollery Children’s Hospital, University of Alberta, Alberta; Conrad V. Fernandez, University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; and Jeffrey S. Dome, Children’s National Health System, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, D.C.

Javad Nazarian

Meeting of the minds: Children’s National hosts first DIPG Round Table Discussion

Javad Nazarian at DIPG Round Table Discussion

Spearheaded by Javad Nazarian, Ph.D., MSC, Scientific Director of the Children’s National Brain Tumor Institute, the focused DIPG Round Table Discussion brought investigators, neurosurgeons and clinicians from North America, Europe and Australia to Children’s National in Washington, D.C.

Over 40 experts involved in the study and treatment of diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPG) convened at the inaugural DIPG Round Table Discussion at Children’s National Health System Sept. 30-Oct. 2.

Spearheaded by Javad Nazarian, Ph.D., MSC, Scientific Director of the Children’s National Brain Tumor Institute, the focused DIPG Round Table Discussion brought investigators, neurosurgeons and clinicians from North America, Europe and Australia to Children’s National in Washington, D.C., to engage in dialogue and learn about the changing landscape of DIPG tumor biology and therapeutics. Attendees discussed the recent discoveries in DIPG research, precision medicine, preclinical modeling, immunotherapy, data sharing and the design of next generation clinical trials.

Families affected by DIPG also had an opportunity to participate in day 2 of the event. Many voiced the necessity of data sharing to ensure progress in the field. Dr. Nazarian seconded that point of view: “It is critical to get raw data and have it harmonized and integrated so that the end users (researchers) can utilize and do cross-data analysis…We need to break down the silos.” The highlight of the data sharing session was the Open DIPG Initiative that is spearheaded by Dr. Nazarian and the Children’s Brian Tumor Tissue Consortium (CBTTC).

Nazarian Lab at DIPG Roundtable Meeting

Eshini Panditharatna, Ph.D., Madhuri Kambhampati, Sridevi Yadavilli, M.D., Ph.D., and Erin Bonner of Children’s National at the DIPG Round Table.

As recent technological and molecular advances in DIPG biology have pushed the field forward, focus groups have become essential to share data, ideas and resources with the overarching goal of expediting effective treatments for children diagnosed with DIPG. An extremely aggressive form of pediatric brain cancer, DIPG accounts for roughly 10 to 15 percent of all brain tumors in children. Between 300 and 400 children in the United States are diagnosed with DIPG each year, but the 5-year survival for the brain tumor is less than 5 percent, a strikingly low number in comparison with other types of childhood cancer. DIPG research and clinical initiatives have changed in the past years mainly due to the generous support of families for basic research. The DIPG Open Table meeting was designed to coalesce a team of experts to expedite the first crack at curing this devastating childhood cancer.

Javad Nazarian

Children’s National launches Open DIPG Initiative

Javad Nazarian

Javad Nazarian, Ph.D., MSC, has played an important role in establishing the Open DIPG Initiative. He hopes that the Open DIPG Initiative will serve as a model for centralized disease-specific efforts that will bring research findings one step closer to clinical translation.

A collaborative team of doctors and researchers at Children’s National Health System today announced the launch of the Open DIPG Initiative through the Children’s Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium (CBTTC).

The primary goals for the project will be to generate DIPG Omics which will help decipher major molecular characteristics of diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). Specifically, these will include genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics and epigenomics for primary analyses, centralize all DIPG Omics for secondary analyses, integrate the new DIPG data and unify DIPG expertise (data scientists, researchers, new talent, etc.) to analyze the DIPG genomic data.

CBTTC Scientific Co-Chairs Javad Nazarian, Ph.D., MSC, principal investigator, and Adam Resnick, Ph.D., have played important roles in establishing the Open DIPG Initiative. They hope that the Open DIPG Initiative will serve as a model for centralized disease-specific efforts that will bring research findings one step closer to clinical translation.

Pediatric brain tumors are the leading cause of disease-related death in children. Unlike many adult cancers, the causes of pediatric brain tumors remain largely unknown, and common therapies have remained mostly unchanged over the last four decades. To address these challenges, clinicians and researchers have embraced the emergence of sequencing technologies and deep molecular characterization of tumors to define novel, targeted approaches and individualized therapies.

However, harnessing such data-driven approaches has been a challenge due to limited accessibility to datasets and shared discovery platforms that can empower large-scale integration of datasets for worldwide access and cross-disease analyses.

As a part of this initiative, the Open DIPG Initiative has collected, generated and annotated the largest cohort of DIPG genome data to date. Specifically, these datasets contain more than 1,000 genomes associated with pediatric high-grade gliomas, with over 500 DIPG cases. The Open DIPG has been a part of a larger effort known as the Pediatric Brain Tumor Atlas, which aims to uncover the molecular basis of childhood cancers.

Committed to accelerated discovery, the CBTTC is partnering with the Kids First Data Resource Center (DRC) and the newly developed Kids First Data Resource Portal, which was also launched today.

“The combination of consortia-based initiatives, partnerships with foundations and new discovery platforms being announced today, with the support of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), provides for entirely new and transformative ways of doing science on behalf of children with brain tumors,” said Adam Resnick, Ph.D., principal investigator of the Kids First DRC.

The Open DIPG initiative will be launched as a part of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Atlas and has been funded by families as well as the NIH Gabriella Miller Kids First Act fund. The fund was launched in 2015 and named after Gabriella Miller, a former patient at Children’s National who lost her life to DIPG.

Tessie October

Effectively expressing empathy to improve ICU care

Tessie October

“Families who feel we’re really listening and care about what they have to say are more likely to feel comfortable as they put their child’s life in our hands a second, third or fourth time,” says Tessie W. October, M.D., M.P.H.

In nearly every intensive care unit (ICU) at every pediatric hospital across the country, physicians hold numerous care conferences with patients’ family members daily. Due to the challenging nature of many these conversations – covering anything from unexpected changes to care plans for critically ill children to whether it’s time to consider withdrawing life support – these talks tend to be highly emotional.

That’s why physician empathy is especially important, says Tessie W. October, M.D., M.P.H., critical care specialist at Children’s National Health System.

Several studies have shown that when families believe that physicians hear, understand or share patients’ or their family’s emotions, patients can achieve better outcomes, Dr. October explains. When families feel like their physicians are truly empathetic, she adds, they’re more likely to share information that’s crucial to providing the best care.

“For the most part, our families do not make one-time visits. They return multiple times because their children are chronically ill,” Dr. October says. “Families who feel we’re really listening and care about what they have to say are more likely to feel comfortable as they put their child’s life in our hands a second, third or fourth time. They’re also less likely to regret decisions made in the hospital, which makes them less likely to experience long-term psychosocial outcomes like depression and anxiety.”

What’s the best way for physicians to show empathy? Dr. October and a multi-institutional research team set out to answer this question in a study published online in JAMA Network Open on July 6, 2018.

With families’ consent, the researchers recorded 68 care conferences that took place at Children’s pediatric ICU (PICU) between Jan. 3, 2013, to Jan. 5, 2017. These conversations were led by 30 physicians specializing in critical care, hematology/oncology and other areas and included 179 family members, including parents.

During these conferences, the most common decision discussed was tracheostomy placement – a surgical procedure that makes an opening in the neck to support breathing – followed by the family’s goals, other surgical procedures or medical treatment. Twenty-two percent of patients whose care was discussed during these conferences died during their hospitalization, highlighting the gravity of many of these talks.

Dr. October and colleagues analyzed each conversation, counting how often the physicians noticed opportunities for empathy and how they made empathetic statements. The researchers were particularly interested in whether empathetic statements were “buried,” which means they were:

  • Followed immediately by medical jargon
  • Followed by a statement beginning with the word “but” that included more factual information or
  • Followed by a second physician interrupting with more medical data.

That compares with “unburied” empathy, which was followed only by a pause that provided the family an opportunity to respond. The research team examined what happened after each type of empathetic comment.

The researchers found that physicians recognized families’ emotional cues 74 percent of the time and made 364 empathetic statements. About 39 percent of these statements were buried. In most of these instances, says Dr. October, the study’s lead author, the buried empathy either stopped the conversation or led to family members responding with a lack of emotion themselves.

After the nearly 62 percent of empathetic statements that were unburied, families tended to answer in ways that revealed their hopes and dreams for the patient, expressed gratitude, agreed with care advice or expressed mourning—information that deepened the conversation and often offered critical information for making shared decisions about a patient’s care.

Physicians missed about 26 percent of opportunities for empathy. This and striving to make more unburied empathetic statements are areas ripe for improvement, Dr. October says.

That’s why she and colleagues are leading efforts to help physicians learn to communicate better at Children’s National. To express empathy more effectively, Dr. October recommends:

  • Slow down and be in the moment. Pay close attention to what patients are saying so you don’t miss their emotional cues and opportunities for empathy.
  • Remember the “NURSE” mnemonic. Empathetic statements should Name the emotion, show Understanding, show Respect, give Support or Explore emotions.
  • Avoid using the word “but” as a transition. When you follow an empathetic statement with “but,” Dr. October says, it cancels out what you said earlier.
  • Don’t be afraid to invite strong emotions. Although it seems counterintuitive, Dr. October says helping patients express strong feelings can help process emotions that are important for decision-making.

In addition to Dr. October, study co-authors include Zoelle B. Dizon, BA, Children’s National; Robert M. Arnold, M.D., University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; and Senior Author, Abby R. Rosenberg, M.D., MS, University of Washington School of Medicine.

Research covered in this story was supported by the National Institutes of Health under grants 5K12HD047349-08 and 1K23HD080902 and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences under Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Children’s National Health System grant number UL1TR0001876.

Yanxin Pei awarded St. Baldrick’s Foundation Research Grant for Childhood Cancer

Yanxin Pei, Ph.D., assistant professor at the Children’s Research Institute, was a recipient of a $100,000 grant that is being named the “Benicio Martinez Fund for Pediatric Cancer Research Grant” from the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, the largest private funder of childhood cancer research grants in the United States.

Dr. Pei studies medulloblastoma – one of the most common malignant brain tumors in children – and has identified a subpopulation of tumor cells that contribute to metastasis after radiotherapy. Her lab is now determining whether targeting these cells can eliminate or prevent the spread of medulloblastoma, thereby improving the outcome of patients with this disease.

In their latest round of funding, the St. Baldrick’s Foundation awarded 76 grants totaling more than $19.1 million to support physician-scientists studying innovative treatment options in the pediatric cancer space. The grants from St. Baldrick’s deliver on its commitment to support the most promising childhood cancer research and work to provide the best solutions possible for kids. The next St. Baldrick’s grant cycle will be announced in fall 2018.

“At St. Baldrick’s, we focus on funding research that has the best potential of giving kids the healthy childhoods they deserve,” said Kathleen Ruddy, CEO of the St. Baldrick’s Foundation.  “I’m proud to say that we have now funded more than a quarter billion dollars since 2005 to support lifesaving childhood cancer research.

Bladder cancer’s unique bacterial “fingerprint”

Michael H. Hsieh, M.D., Ph.D.

Michael H. Hsieh, M.D., Ph.D.

Decades ago, researchers thought that the native bacteria scattered throughout the human body—such as in the gut, the oral cavity and the skin—served little useful purpose. This microbiota, whose numbers at least match those of the cells in the body they live on and in, were considered mostly harmless hitchhikers.

More recently, research has revealed that these natural flora play key roles in maintaining and promoting health. In addition, studies have shown that understanding what a “typical” microbiome looks like and how it might change over time can provide an early warning system for some health conditions, including cancer.

Now, a small, multi-institutional study conducted in experimental models suggests that as bladder cancer progresses, it appears to be associated with a unique bacterial fingerprint within the bladder—a place thought to be bacteria-free except in the case of infection until just a few years ago. The finding opens the possibility of a new way to spot the disease earlier.

Bladder cancer is the fourth-most common malignancy among U.S. men but, despite its prevalence, mortality rates have remained stubbornly high. Patients often are diagnosed late, after bladder cancer has advanced. And, it remains difficult to discern which patients with non-invasive bladder cancer will go on to develop muscle-invasive disease.

Already, researchers know that patients with grade 4 oral squamous cell carcinoma, women with increasingly severe grades of cervical cancer and patients with cirrhosis who develop liver cancer have altered oral, vaginal and gut microbiomes, respectively.

New technological advances have led to identification of a diverse community of bacteria within the bladder, the urinary microbiome. Leveraging these tools, a research team that includes Children’s National Health System investigators studied whether an experimental model’s urinary bacterial community changed as bladder cancer progressed, evolving from a microbiome into a urinary “oncobiome.”

To test the hypothesis, the research team led by Michael H. Hsieh, M.D., Ph.D., a Children’s urologist, exposed an experimental model of bladder cancer to a bladder-specific cancer-causing agent, n-butyl-n-(4-hydroxybutyl) nitrosamine (BBN). Bladder cancers induced by BBN closely resemble human cancers in tissue structure at the microscopic level and by gene expression analyses. Ten of the preclinical models received a .05 percent concentration of BBN in their drinking water over five months and were housed together. Ten other experimental models received regular tap water and shared a separate, adjacent cage.

Researchers collected urine samples ranging from 10 to 100 microliters at the beginning of the longitudinal study, one week after it began, then once monthly. They isolated microbial DNA from the urine and quantified it to determine how much DNA was microbial. All of the bladders from experimental models exposed to BBN and two bladders from the control group were analyzed by a pathologist trained in bladder biology.

According to the study published online July 5, 2018, by the biology preprint server Biorxiv, they found a range of pathologies:

  • Five of the experimental models that received BBN did not develop cancer but had histology consistent with inflammation. Three had precancer on histology: urothelial dysplasia, hyperplasia or carcinoma in situ. Two developed cancer: invasive urothelial carcinomas, one of which had features of a squamous cell carcinoma.
  • The experimental model that developed invasive carcinoma had markedly different urinary bacteria at baseline, with Rubellimicrobium, a gram negative organism found in soil that has not been associated with disease previously, Escherichia and Kaistobacter, also found in soil, as the most prominent bacteria. By contrast, in the other experimental models the most common urinary bacteria were Escherichia, Prevotella, Veillonella, Streptococcus, Staphylococcus and Neisseria.
  • By month four, the majority of experimental models exposed to BBN had significantly higher proportion of Gardnerella and Bifidobacterium compared with their control group counterparts.

“Closely analyzing the urinary bacterial community among experimental models exposed to BBN, we saw distinct differences in microbial profiles by month four that were not present in earlier months,” Dr. Hsieh says. “While Gardnerella is associated with the development of cancer, Bifidobacterium has been shown to exert antitumor immunity, and its increasing abundance points to the need for additional research to understand its precise role in oncogenesis.”

Dr. Hsieh adds that although the study is small, its findings are of significance to children who are prone to developing urinary tract infections (UTIs), including children with spina bifida, due to the association between UTIs and bladder cancer. “This work is important because it not only suggests that the urinary microbiome could be used to diagnose bladder cancer, but that it could also perhaps predict cancer outcomes. If the urinary microbiome contributes to bladder carcinogenesis, it may be possible to favorably change the microbiome through antibiotics and/or probiotics in order to treat bladder cancer.”

In addition to Dr. Hsieh, co-authors include Catherine S. Forster, M.D., M.S., and Crystal Stroud, of Children’s National; James J. Cody, Nirad Banskota, Yi-Ju Hsieh and Olivia Lamanna, of the Biomedical Research Institute; Dannah Farah and Ljubica Caldovic, of The George Washington University; and Olfat Hammam, of Theodor Bilharz Research Institute.

Research reported in this news release was supported by the National Institutes of Health under award number R01 DK113504 and the Margaret A. Stirewalt Endowment.

Yuan Zhu

The brain tumor field moves forward with new findings and a research grant

Yuan Zhu

Yuan Zhu, Ph.D., and other experts completed new research findings evaluating the effects of manipulating the growth-promoting signaling pathways in brain tumors associated with adults and children.

This month, experts at Children’s National Health System made great strides in brain tumor research, specifically in gliomas, glioblastomas and medulloblastomas. Led by Yuan Zhu, Ph.D., the scientific director and Gilbert Endowed Professor of the Gilbert Family Neurofibromatosis Institute and Center for Cancer and Immunology Research at Children’s National, the team completed new research findings evaluating the effects of manipulating the growth-promoting signaling pathways in brain tumors associated with adults and children. Dr. Zhu’s research was recently published in Cell Reports and he was also awarded a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) grant to gain a better understanding of how low-grade gliomas form. Together, this work moves the needle on developing more effective treatments for these debilitating and life-threatening tumors.

The study

In his recently published paper, Dr. Zhu and his colleagues, including Drs. Seckin Akgul and Yinghua Li, studied glioblastomas, the most common brain tumor in adults, and medulloblastomas, the most common brain tumor found in children, in genetically engineered experimental models. Dr. Zhu found that when they removed the p53 gene (the most commonly mutated tumor suppressor gene in human cancers) in the experimental model’s brain, most developed malignant gliomas and glioblastomas, while Sonic Hedgehog (SHH)-subtype (SHH) medulloblastomas were also observed. They further suppressed the Rictor/mTorc2 molecular pathway that is known in the regulation of tumor growth. This action greatly reduced the incidence of malignant gliomas and extended the survival of the models, validating the concept that Rictor/mTorc2 could be a viable drug target for this lethal brain cancer in adults.

The study also found that the same Rictor/mTorc2 molecular pathway serves the opposite function in SHH medulloblastoma formation, acting as a tumor suppressor. Findings suggest that if the same drug treatment is used for treating SHH medulloblastoma in children, it could potentially have an adverse effect and promote growth of the tumors.

Ultimately, the study demonstrates that Rictor/mTORC2 has opposing functions in glioblastomas in adults and SHH medulloblastomas in children. While drug therapies targeting Rictor/mTORC2 may be successful in adults, the findings reveal the risks of treating children with pediatric brain tumors when using the same therapies.

The grant

Continuing the study of brain tumors, Dr. Zhu recently received a $575,000 grant from DoD to research benign gliomas, with the hope of gaining a greater understanding of how the tumors form. Low-grade gliomas, or benign brain tumors, are the most common brain tumors in children. While not lethal like their high-grade counterpart, these tumors can lead to significant neurological defects, permanently impacting a child’s quality of life. Most commonly, the tumor can impair vision, often leading to blindness.

Since the tumors only occur in children under the age of eight, Dr. Zhu believes they are linked to neural stem or progenitor cells that exist in the optic nerve only during development, or when children are under eight-years-old. To test if his hypothesis is correct, Dr. Zhu will develop a preclinical model that mimics human brain tumors to study the development of the optic nerve. If his theory proves correct, Dr. Zhu’s long-term goal is to develop a strategy that prevents the tumor formation from ever occurring, ultimately preventing vision loss in children. The grant begins in July and will run for three years.

 

Brian Rood

Improving the understanding of medulloblastoma

Brian Rood

Brian Rood, M.D., employed quantitative proteomics to tumor samples that led to novel therapeutic targets for Medulloblastoma and other tumors.

In a recently published study, Brian Rood, M.D., a neuro-oncologist at Children’s National Health System, employed quantitative proteomics to tumor samples, a technique that could lead to novel therapeutic targets for medulloblastoma and other tumors in the future.

Currently, many experts use genomic characterization to understand the genetic makeup of cancer cells, which has deepened the field’s collective knowledge of tumor biology. However, it has remained challenging to infer specific information about how the tumors will respond and consequently develop more effective therapies. Medulloblastoma is the most common pediatric, malignant brain tumor. Through Dr. Rood’s research using proteomic analysis, he was able to identify and measure the protein makeup of medulloblastoma, which led to a potential pathway for clinical intervention to treat this life-threatening cancer. The findings were published online June 7, 2018, in Acta Neuropathologica Communications.

“The goal of this research was to find out how these tumor cells function at the protein level, which may ultimately help the field identify drug therapies to stop them,” says Dr. Rood. “The genes of a cancer cell are like a blueprint for a building, but the blueprints aren’t always followed in a cancer cell: Not every active gene will produce its corresponding protein. Proteins do the work of the cell, and understanding them will provide a better overall understanding of a cancer cell’s biology.”

Dr. Rood compared proteomic and genomic data to confirm that genetics do not accurately predict the quantity of proteins. By directly quantitating the proteins and comparing them between different subgroups of the disease, they were able to identify protein-based pathways driving tumor biology. With this information, Dr. Rood was able to demonstrate that medulloblastoma depends on a crucial pathway, the eukaryotic initiation factor 4F protein synthesis pathway, resulting in the identification of a potential target for new treatments in medulloblastoma.

Ultimately, Dr. Rood found that proteomic analysis complements genomic characterization and the two can be used together to create a more complete understanding of tumor biology. Going forward, he hopes proteomic analysis will become common practice for studying all tumors, allowing tumors to be categorized and grouped together by protein makeup to help the field identify more effective therapies for all tumors.

Making the grade: Children’s National is nation’s Top 5 children’s hospital

Children’s National rose in rankings to become the nation’s Top 5 children’s hospital according to the 2018-19 Best Children’s Hospitals Honor Roll released June 26, 2018, by U.S. News & World Report. Additionally, for the second straight year, Children’s Neonatology division led by Billie Lou Short, M.D., ranked No. 1 among 50 neonatal intensive care units ranked across the nation.

Children’s National also ranked in the Top 10 in six additional services:

For the eighth year running, Children’s National ranked in all 10 specialty services, which underscores its unwavering commitment to excellence, continuous quality improvement and unmatched pediatric expertise throughout the organization.

“It’s a distinct honor for Children’s physicians, nurses and employees to be recognized as the nation’s Top 5 pediatric hospital. Children’s National provides the nation’s best care for kids and our dedicated physicians, neonatologists, surgeons, neuroscientists and other specialists, nurses and other clinical support teams are the reason why,” says Kurt Newman, M.D., Children’s President and CEO. “All of the Children’s staff is committed to ensuring that our kids and families enjoy the very best health outcomes today and for the rest of their lives.”

The excellence of Children’s care is made possible by our research insights and clinical innovations. In addition to being named to the U.S. News Honor Roll, a distinction awarded to just 10 children’s centers around the nation, Children’s National is a two-time Magnet® designated hospital for excellence in nursing and is a Leapfrog Group Top Hospital. Children’s ranks seventh among pediatric hospitals in funding from the National Institutes of Health, with a combined $40 million in direct and indirect funding, and transfers the latest research insights from the bench to patients’ bedsides.

“The 10 pediatric centers on this year’s Best Children’s Hospitals Honor Roll deliver exceptional care across a range of specialties and deserve to be highlighted,” says Ben Harder, chief of health analysis at U.S. News. “Day after day, these hospitals provide state-of-the-art medical expertise to children with complex conditions. Their U.S. News’ rankings reflect their commitment to providing high-quality care.”

The 12th annual rankings recognize the top 50 pediatric facilities across the U.S. in 10 pediatric specialties: cancer, cardiology and heart surgery, diabetes and endocrinology, gastroenterology and gastrointestinal surgery, neonatology, nephrology, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics, pulmonology and urology. Hospitals received points for being ranked in a specialty, and higher-ranking hospitals receive more points. The Best Children’s Hospitals Honor Roll recognizes the 10 hospitals that received the most points overall.

This year’s rankings will be published in the U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals 2019” guidebook, available for purchase in late September.

pill bottles and pills

New treatment approach shows promise for patients with stage IV Wilms tumor

The study assessed the benefit of adding two additional chemotherapy agents, cyclophosphamide and etoposide, to the treatment regimen for patients with incomplete lung nodule response or tumor loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at chromosomes 1p and 16q, both associated with interior outcomes in previous studies.

Wilms tumor, which first develops in the kidneys, is the fifth most common cancer in children under 15 years old. While overall outcomes for patients with Wilms tumor are excellent, patients with metastatic disease, with the lung as the most common site of spread, fare worse than patients with localized disease. That’s why a new study showing significantly improved survival rates for patients with stage IV Wilms tumors with lung metastases is making waves in the pediatric oncology community.

The study, “Treatment of Stage IV Favorable Histology Wilms Tumor With Lung Metastases: A Report From the Children’s Oncology Group AREN0533 Study” – recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology with Jeffrey Dome, M.D., Ph.D., vice president for the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s National Health System, as the senior author – assessed whether lung radiation therapy, part of the standard treatment in combination with chemotherapy drugs, can be avoided for patients with complete lung nodule response after six weeks of chemotherapy. Conversely, the study assessed the benefit of adding two additional chemotherapy agents, cyclophosphamide and etoposide, to the treatment regimen for patients with incomplete lung nodule response or tumor loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at chromosomes 1p and 16q, both associated with interior outcomes in previous studies. The results show that:

  • The new approach to therapy resulted in a 4-year overall survival rate of 96 percent, compared to 84 percent on the predecessor study.
  • About 40 percent of patients with Wilms tumor and lung metastases can be spared initial upfront lung radiation and still have outstanding survival. This will decrease the long-term risk of heart toxicity and breast cancer.
  • Patients with incomplete lung nodule response after six weeks of therapy with cyclophosphamide and etoposide had significantly better 4-year event-free survival: 89 percent compared with 75 percent that was expected based on historical data.
  • Intensification of therapy for patients with LOH at 1p and 16q was highly effective: 4-year event-free survival rate improved from 66 percent on the previous study to 100 percent.

“These findings will change clinical practice and improve survival for patients with Wilms tumor whose cancer has spread to the lungs” said Dr. Dome. “The risk-adapted approach to treatment based on tumor biology and tumor response provides a framework for future studies as we come one step closer to achieving 100 percent survival without treatment-associated side effects.”

Research and Education Week awardees embody the diverse power of innovation

cnmc-research-education-week

“Diversity powers innovation” was brought to life at Children’s National April 16 to 20, 2018, during the eighth annual Research and Education Week. Children’s faculty were honored as President’s Award winners and for exhibiting outstanding mentorship, while more than 360 scientific poster presentations were displayed throughout the Main Atrium.

Two clinical researchers received Mentorship Awards for excellence in fostering the development of junior faculty. Lauren Kenworthy, Ph.D received the award for Translational Science and Murray M. Pollack, M.D., M.B.A., was recognized in the Clinical Science category as part of Children’s National Health System’s Research and Education Week 2018.

Dr. Kenworthy has devoted her career to improving the lives of people on the autism spectrum and was cited by former mentees as an inspirational and tireless counselor. Her mentorship led to promising new lines of research investigating methods for engaging culturally diverse families in autism studies, as well as the impact of dual language exposure on cognition in autism.

Meanwhile, Dr. Pollack was honored for his enduring focus on motivating early-career professionals to investigate outcomes in pediatric critical care, emergency medicine and neonatology. Dr. Pollack is one of the founders of the Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network. He developed PRISM 1 and 2, which has revolutionized pediatric intensive care by providing a methodology to predict mortality and outcome using standardly collected clinical data. Mentees credit Dr. Pollack with helping them develop critical thinking skills and encouraging them to address creativity and focus in their research agenda.

In addition to the Mentorship and President’s Awards, 34 other Children’s National faculty, residents, interns and research staff were among the winners of Poster Presentation awards. The event is a celebration of the commitment to improving pediatric health in the form of education, research, scholarship and innovation that occurs every day at Children’s National.

Children’s Research Institute (CRI) served as host for the week’s events to showcase the breadth of research and education programs occurring within the entire health system, along with the rich demographic and cultural origins of the teams that make up Children’s National. The lineup of events included scientific poster presentations, as well as a full slate of guest lectures, educational workshops and panel discussions.

“It’s critical that we provide pathways for young people of all backgrounds to pursue careers in science and medicine,” says Vittorio Gallo, Ph.D., Children’s chief research officer and CRI’s scientific director. “In an accelerated global research and health care environment, internationalization of innovation requires an understanding of cultural diversity and inclusion of different mindsets and broader spectrums of perspectives and expertise from a wide range of networks,” Gallo adds.

“Here at Children’s National we want our current and future clinician-researchers to reflect the patients we serve, which is why our emphasis this year was on harnessing diversity and inclusion as tools to power innovation,” says Mark L. Batshaw, M.D., physician-in-chief and chief academic officer of Children’s National.

“Research and Education Week 2018 presented a perfect opportunity to celebrate the work of our diverse research, education and care teams, who have come together to find innovative solutions by working with local, national and international partners. This event highlights the ingenuity and inspiration that our researchers contribute to our mission of healing children,” Dr. Batshaw concludes.

Awards for the best posters were distributed according to the following categories:

  • Basic and translational science
  • Quality and performance improvement
  • Clinical research
  • Community-based research and
  • Education, training and program development.

Each winner illustrated promising advances in the development of new therapies, diagnostics and medical devices.

Diversity powers innovation: Denice Cora-Bramble, M.D., MBA
Diversity powers innovation: Vittorio Gallo, Ph.D.
Diversity powers innovation: Mark L. Batshaw, M.D.

Javad Nazarian

Private foundation and researchers partner to cure childhood cancers

Javad Nazarian

Researchers nationally and internally stand the best chance of fulfilling Gabriella Miller’s dream of curing childhood cancers by effectively working together, says Javad Nazarian, Ph.D.

“Thank you for helping me reach my goal.” The handwritten note was penned by Gabriella Miller, a patient treated at Children’s National Health System who ultimately succumbed to an aggressive form of pediatric brain cancer.

Gabriella, then 9 years old, dreamed of curing childhood cancer, including diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), the aggressive pediatric brain tumor that took her life.

Attendees will gather April 14, 2018, for an annual gala held by the Smashing Walnuts Foundation – a group Gabriella started – to celebrate their progress on achieving her goal and to chart future strategic approaches.

“While this foundation was the brainchild of a single person, researchers nationally and internally stand the best chance of fulfilling her dream by working together more effectively,” says Javad Nazarian, Ph.D., M.S.C., the gala’s main speaker. Nazarian is scientific director of Children’s Brain Tumor Institute and is scientific co-chair of the Children’s Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium.

To that end, Children’s National was named a member of a public-private research collective awarded up to $14.8 million by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to launch a data resource center that cancer sleuths around the world can tap into to accelerate discovery of novel treatments for childhood tumors.

This April, the NIH announced that researchers it funded had completed PanCancer Atlas, a detailed genomic analysis on a data set of molecular and clinical information from more than 10,000 tumors representing 33 types of cancer, including DIPG.

And this January, the NIH announced that it would accept applications from researchers performing whole-genome sequencing studies at one of its Gabriella Miller Kids First research program sequencing facilities. The centers will produce genome, exome and transcriptome sequencing.

Expanding access to these growing troves of data requires a close eye on nuts-and-bolts issues, such as securing sufficient physical data storage space to house the data, Nazarian adds. It’s essential for research teams around the world to have streamlined access to data sets they can analyze as well as contribute to.

“In addition to facilitating researchers’ access to this compiled data, we want to ensure that patients and families feel they are partners in this enterprise by also offering opportunities for them to share meaningful clinical data,” Nazarian says.

Nazarian has been instrumental in expanding the comprehensive biorepository at Children’s National, growing it from just a dozen samples six years ago to thousands of specimens donated by patients with all types of pediatric brain tumors, including DIPG.

“We are so grateful to our patients and families. They share our passion for finding cures and validating innovative treatments for pediatric cancers that defy current treatment. They provide funding through their foundations. Families touched by tragedy offer samples to help the next family avoid reliving their experience,” Nazarian says. “It is in their names – and in Gabriella’s name – that we continue to push ourselves to ‘crack the cure’ for childhood brain cancer.”

Joseph Scafidi

Developing brains are impacted, but can recover, from molecularly targeted cancer drugs

Joseph Scafidi

“The plasticity of the developing brain does make it susceptible to treatments that alter its pathways,” says Joseph Scafidi, D. O., M.S. “Thankfully, that same plasticity means we have an opportunity to mitigate the damage from necessary and lifesaving treatments by providing the right support after the treatment is over.”

One of the latest developments in oncology treatments is the advancement of molecularly targeted therapeutic agents. These drugs can be used to specifically target and impact the signaling pathways that encourage tumor growth, and are also becoming a common go to for ophthalmologists to treat retinopathy of prematurity in neonates.

But in the developing brain of a child or adolescent, these pathways are also crucial to the growth and development of the brain and central nervous system.

“These drugs have been tested in vitro, or in tumor cells, or even in adult studies for efficacy, but there was no data on what happens when these pathways are inhibited during periods when their activation is also playing a key role in the development of cognitive and behavioral skills, as is the case in a growing child,” says Joseph Scafidi, D. O., M.S., a neuroscientist and pediatric neurologist who specializes in neonatology at Children’s National Health System.

As it turns out, when the drugs successfully inhibit tumor growth by suppressing receptors, they can also significantly impact the function of immature brains, specifically changing cognitive and behavioral functions that are associated with white matter and hippocampal development.

The results appeared in Cancer Research, and are the first to demonstrate the vulnerability of the developing brain when this class of drugs is administered. The pre-clinical study looked at the unique impacts of drugs including gefitinib (Iressa), sunitib malate (Sutent) and rapamycin (Sirolimus) that target specific pathways responsible for the rapid growth and development that occurs throughout childhood.

The agents alter signaling pathways in the developing brain, including decreasing the number of oligodendrocytes, which alters white matter growth. Additionally, the agents also impact the function of specific cells within the hippocampus related to learning and memory. When younger preclinical subjects were treated, impacts of exposure were more significant. Tests on the youngest pre-clinical subjects showed significantly diminished capacity to complete cognitive and behavioral tasks and somewhat older, e.g. adolescent, subjects showed somewhat fewer deficits. Adult subjects saw little or no deficit.

“The impacts on cognitive and behavioral function for the developing brain, though significant, are still less detrimental than the widespread impacts of chemotherapy on that young brain,” Dr. Scafidi notes. “Pediatric oncologists, neuro-oncologists and ophthalmologists should be aware of the potential impacts of using these molecularly targeted drugs in children, but should still consider them as a treatment option when necessary.”

The effects are reversible

Researchers also found measurable improvements in these impaired cognitive and behavioral functions when rehabilitation strategies such as environmental stimulation, cognitive therapy and physical activity were applied after drug exposure.

“The plasticity of the developing brain does make it susceptible to treatments that alter its pathways,” says Dr. Scafidi. “Thankfully, that same plasticity means we have an opportunity to mitigate the damage from necessary and lifesaving treatments by providing the right support after the treatment is over.”

Many major pediatric oncology centers, including the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s National, already incorporate rehabilitation strategies such as cognitive therapy and increased physical activity to help pediatric patients return to normal life following treatment. The results from this study suggest that these activities after treatment for pediatric brain tumors may play a vital role in improving recovery of brain cognitive and behavioral function in the pediatric population.

This research was funded by grants to Dr. Scafidi from the National Brain Tumor Society, Childhood Brain Tumor Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

Anthony Sandler

Anthony Sandler, M.D., Named Director of Sheikh Zayed Institute

Anthony Sandler

Children’s National Health System is pleased to announce that Anthony Sandler, M.D., current senior vice president and surgeon-in-chief of the Joseph E. Robert Jr. Center for Surgical Care at Children’s National, will now additionally assume the title of director, Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation. He will succeed Peter Kim, M.D., the founding vice president of the Sheikh Zayed Institute, who is leaving to pursue other career opportunities after seven years at the helm of our surgical innovation center.

Dr. Sandler will be in a unique position, leading both in the research and clinical enterprises of Children’s National and will help to forge a stronger link between them, especially in the surgical subspecialties.

Internationally known for his work on childhood solid tumors and operative repair of congenital anomalies, Dr. Sandler is the Diane and Norman Bernstein Chair in Pediatric Surgery and is a professor of surgery and pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences. He is currently on the Board of Examiners for the Pediatric Surgery Qualifying Examination and has served on multiple committees for the American Pediatric Surgical Association and for the Children’s Oncology Group.

Dr. Sandler’s research interests focus on solid tumors of childhood and he’s presently studying tumor immunology and investigating immunotherapeutic vaccine strategies. He has co-developed a surgical polymer sealant that is R01 funded by the National Institutes of Health and is currently in pre-clinical trials. Dr. Sandler has over 120 peer-reviewed publications in clinical and scientific medical journals.

banner year

2017: A banner year for innovation at Children’s National

banner year

In 2017, clinicians and research faculty working at Children’s National Health System published more than 850 research articles about a wide array of topics. A multidisciplinary Children’s Research Institute review group selected the top 10 articles for the calendar year considering, among other factors, work published in high-impact academic journals.

“This year’s honorees showcase how our multidisciplinary institutes serve as vehicles to bring together Children’s specialists in cross-cutting research and clinical collaborations,” says Mark L. Batshaw, M.D., Physician-in-Chief and Chief Academic Officer at Children’s National. “We’re honored that the National Institutes of Health and other funders have provided millions in awards that help to ensure that these important research projects continue.”

The published papers explain research that includes using imaging to describe the topography of the developing brains of infants with congenital heart disease, how high levels of iron may contribute to neural tube defects and using an incisionless surgery method to successfully treat osteoid osteoma. The top 10 Children’s papers:

Read the complete list.

Dr. Batshaw’s announcement comes on the eve of Research and Education Week 2018 at Children’s National, a weeklong event that begins April 16, 2018. This year’s theme, “Diversity powers innovation,” underscores the cross-cutting nature of Children’s research that aims to transform pediatric care.

Anthony Sandler

Treatment of neuroblastoma with immunotherapy and vaccine combination shows promise

Anthony Sandler

“Treatment options like these that help the body use its own immune system to fight off cancer are incredibly promising, and we look forward to continuing this work to understand how we can best help our patients and their families,” said Anthony Sandler, M.D.

Despite being the most common extracranial solid tumor found in children and having multiple modes of therapy, neuroblastoma continues to carry a poor prognosis. However, a recent cutting-edge pre-clinical study, PD-L1 checkpoint inhibition and anti-CTLA-4 whole tumor cell vaccination counter adaptive immune resistance: A mouse neuroblastoma model that mimics human disease, published in PLOS Medicine shows the first signs of success in treating high-risk neuroblastoma, a promising step not only for neuroblastoma patients, but potentially for other types of cancer and solid tumors as well. While the research was conducted on mouse models and is in the early stages, the lead author of the study, Anthony Sandler, M.D., senior vice president and surgeon-in-chief of the Joseph E. Robert, Jr., Center for Surgical Care at Children’s National, believes these findings are an encouraging development for the field.

The treatment method combines a novel personalized vaccine and a combination of drugs that target checkpoint inhibitors enabling the immune system to identify and kill cancer cells. When these checkpoints are blocked, it’s similar to taking the brakes off the immune system so that the body’s T cells can be primed by the vaccine, identify the tumor and allow for targeted tumor cell killing. The vaccine then brings in reinforcements to double down on the attack, helping to eradicate the tumor. The vaccine could also be used as a way to prevent recurrence of disease. After a patient has received the vaccine, the T cells would live in the body, remembering the tumor cells, and attack reemerging cancer in a similar way that a flu vaccine helps fight off the flu virus.

“Treatment options like these that help the body use its own immune system to fight off cancer are incredibly promising, and we look forward to continuing this work to understand how we can best help our patients and their families,” said Dr. Sandler.

Roger Packer examines a patient

New guidelines advance treatment approach for children with low-grade gliomas

Roger Packer examines a patient

“We believe our understanding of LGGs combined with novel therapies will soon lead to a new standard of care for children,” says Roger J. Packer, M.D. “We are optimistic about the future for patients with this disease.”

Patients with low-grade gliomas (LGGs) will benefit from new recommendations from a group led by Roger J. Packer, M.D., senior vice president for the Center for Neuroscience and Behavioral Medicine, as well as clinicians, researchers and industry leaders from around the world, that were recently published in Neuro-Oncology. The new framework for LGGs will significantly advance the future of care for patients with these complex diseases and set a new path to expedite the translation of scientific advances into clinical care. The recommendations build on a treatment approach developed more than 25 years ago by Dr. Packer and his colleagues that revolutionized care for LGGs.

LGGs are both common and complicated, and one treatment approach does not work for all cases. Until now, there has not been a standardized way to categories the tumors to prescribe more effective and personalized treatment options. The new guidelines will provide clinicians with one mutually agreed upon set of recommendations to further advance the field and better diagnose and treat patients with LGGs.

Topics within the framework include:

  • Implications of the growing understanding of genomics underlying these tumors and how to apply to clinical practice
  • The need for more and better model systems to assess the likely benefits of new treatments for LGGs before exposing patients to new therapy
  • A review and assessment of what is needed for the design of future clinical trials
  • Evaluation of current therapies and the steps needed to expedite molecularly targeted therapy into late-stage clinical trials, including in those newly diagnosed with the disease so as to avoid less-personalized chemotherapy or radiotherapy

“We believe our understanding of LGGs combined with novel therapies will soon lead to a new standard of care for children,” says Dr. Packer.  “We are optimistic about the future for patients with this disease.”