News You Can Use

(From the February 2024 issue of MedStat)

The Region’s First Proton Therapy Center Now Open

Nationwide Children’s Hospital is proud to launch the first proton therapy treatment facility in central Ohio. In partnership with The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, the proton therapy center houses the most advanced radiation treatment capabilities in the world, including FLASH therapy, which has shown to deliver a high-energy proton beam to cancerous tissue at ultra-high dose rate, providing what would normally be six weeks of traditional radiation in under one second.

Patients with cancer brain tumors and other specific cancers will no longer need to leave Columbus to receive state-of-the-art care. To learn more about the center and proton therapy, visit our webpage.

Nationwide Children’s is Authorized Treatment Center for Sickle Cell Gene Therapy

Nationwide Children’s Hospital has recently been designated an authorized treatment center for CASGEVY™ (exagamglogene autotemcel (exa-cel)), a gene therapy for the treatment of sickle cell disease.

In December 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved CASGEVY, which was developed by pharmaceutical company Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics, for the treatment of sickle cell disease in adult and pediatric patients 12 years and older who require regular red blood cell transfusions.

With Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ designation, Nationwide Children’s becomes one of a handful of facilities throughout the United States certified to have the advanced facilities and specially trained staff necessary for the administration of CASGEVY.

CASGEVY is a CRISPR-based gene therapy that edits a patient’s own blood stem cells to produce high levels of the healthy, oxygen-carrying hemoglobin that is typically produced in utero. For more information, visit the newsroom at Nationwide Children’s.

2024 Physician Recognition Award Nominations

The Medical Staff Recognition Committee is accepting nominees for the 2024 Career Contribution Awards, Golden Stethoscope Awards and Art of Medicine Awards. The recipients of these awards will be recognized at the Physician Recognition Awards event on Wednesday, September 25, 2024. Watch your email for guidelines and nomination forms. Nominations are due to the Medical Staff Office by March 31. If you have any questions, email Yvonne Jackson.