Under the direction of Howard Weinstein, MD, the MassGeneral Hospital for
Children Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Clinic is committed to providing state-of-the-art,
multidisciplinary and personalized care to children who have malignancies
and disorders of the blood. The hospital’s treatment team consists of world-renowned
pediatric specialists in oncology, radiation oncology, surgery, neurology,
orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, psychiatry, nursing, psychology, social
work, nutrition, and physical therapy. Each year, the clinic treats hundreds of children from
all over the United States and the world with all types of childhood cancers
and blood diseases. When Charley was diagnosed more than 25 years ago, very
few of these children could be cured. Today, the treatment of children's
cancer has improved dramatically.
Breakthroughs in treatment since 1981:
- Cure rates have doubled from 40% to 80% for children with leukemia and malignant lymphomas
- Advanced surgical procedures which help preserve the limbs for children with bone tumors
- New treatments like conformal radiation therapy and proton beam, which reduce the serious side effects of radiation
- Knowledge of cancer's genetic complexity, which provides new information about a patient's prognosis and response to chemotherapy, and "targeted" drug development
- Development of long-term survivor clinics to assess the mental and physical health of childhood cancer survivors
- National Research provides the ability to fund research anywhere in the country
- All breakthroughs are shared with cancer centers around the world
