Hematology/Oncology/BMT Research

Thanks to advances during the last 20 years, many children are cured of their cancer during childhood. Still, survival is not consistent across all childhood cancers and current therapies are horrendously toxic. Simply put, the required drugs and approaches to successfully meet the needs of children with cancer remain frustratingly out of reach.

Nationwide Children's Hematology/Oncology/BMT is committed to advancing both basic and clinical research. The division maintains active membership in the Children’s Oncology Group and the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium, and is a research member of the International Blood and Marrow Transplant Registry. The division is also involved in other clinical research efforts aimed at improving bone marrow transplant outcomes. Hematology, Oncology & BMT works hand-in-hand with the Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases to expand the understanding of childhood cancer and to improve strategies for its diagnosis and treatment.

Clinical Studies

Approximately 74 percent of eligible oncology patients are enrolled in clinical trials at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, making the division one of the leading cancer centers for clinical trial enrollment by the Children’s Oncology Group.

Browse current research studies being conducted at Nationwide Children’s related to Hematology/Oncology/BMT

National Biobanking Leadership

A comprehensive cancer biobanking has existed at Nationwide Children’s since the late 1980s. Currently, the Biopathology Center is one of the largest cancer biobanks in North America and includes the Children’s Onoclogy Group (COG) biobank. The Biopathology Center receives more than $15 million annually from the National Institutes of Health to support these efforts.  Specimens are received from more than 500 hospitals in the United States and Canada, as well as New Zealand, the Netherlands, Australia, Japan and Switzerland. This lab receives, processes, characterizes and stores approximately 100 new cancer cases each day.  

The longstanding biobanking expertise at Nationwide Children’s resulted in our designation as a Biospecimen Core Resource for The Cancer Genome Atlas Project, the largest research project ever undertaken by the National Institutes of Health.

Preclinical Testing Program

The Pediatric Preclinical Testing Program (PPTP) is a multi-center initiative supported by the U.S. National Cancer Institute and led by Center for Childhood Cancer Director, Dr. Peter Houghton. Through the PPTP, scientists systematically evaluate new against 47 mouse models of eight tumor types. The primary goal is to identify new agents that have the potential for being clinically effective.

Hematology, Oncology & BMT Research Areas of Focus

• Biology of Pediatric Cancer
• Blood Disorders
• Psychosocial Factors

Of Note

$11.5 Million Contract Extends Biospecimen Banking
Nationwide Children’s recently was awarded $11.5 million from the National Cancer Institute to contiue its role as one of two Biospecimen Core Resources for The Cancer Genome Atlas. Contract awards to Nationwide Children’s could total up to $49.2 million over six years.

New Technology Allows for Fluorescence Whole Slide Scanning
The Biomedical Imaging Team at Nationwide Children’s will soon acquire equipment (the Aperio ScanScope FL) to expand its digital slide capabilities to include fluorescence labeled samles. This technology will significantly improve research pertaining to pediatric cancers.

General Hematology, Oncology & BMT Grants

Comprehensive Sickle Cell Treatment Center, Ohio Department of Health (Melissa M. Rhodes, MD)

Improving Pain Management and Outcomes with Various Strategies of Patient-Controlled Analgesia (PCA): IMPROVE TRIAL, New England Research Center (Melissa M. Rhodes, MD)

A Randomized Study of Antibody in High Risk Stage 4 Cancer Patients, Anonymous (Mark A. Ranalli, MD)

A Multi-Center, Randomized, Double Blind, Phase III Trial Evaluating Corticosteroids with Mycophenolate Mofetil vs. Corticosteroids with Placebo as Initial Systemic Treatment of Acute 4/30, National Childhood Cancer Foundation (Daniel W. Pietryga, MD)

A Phase I Study Evaluating the Safety, Tolerability and Biological Activity of Study Drug, a Survivin mRNA Antagonist, Administered with Re-induction Chemotherapy in Children with Relapsed Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles (Laura Martin, MD)

Retreatment with Study Drug in Patients with CD30-positive hematologic malignancies, Anonymous (Randal Olshefski, MD)