Pediatric Cancers

The FDA has granted accelerated approval to nivolumab for use in adult and adolescent patients with MSI-H or dMMR metastatic colorectal cancer.

Arsenic trioxide consolidation was well tolerated in pediatric patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia and allowed for significant reductions in cumulative anthracycline doses.

A lower dose of rabbit anti–T-lymphocyte globulin was superior to a higher dose in children with hematologic malignancies undergoing transplant from an unrelated donor.

The FDA has expanded the approval of ipilimumab (Yervoy) to include the treatment of pediatric melanoma patients 12 years and older with unresectable or metastatic disease.

The FDA has granted priority review status for two new indications of dasatinib (Sprycel), according to the drug’s developer.

The FDA has expanded the approval of blinatumomab (Blincyto) for the treatment of relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia in adults and children.

Researchers have discovered a way to test for multiple neuroblastoma-associated genes simultaneously, which may help to improve definition of disease status in patients with relapsed/refractory neuroblastoma.

Dasatinib was safe and effective in pediatric patients with chronic myeloid leukemia, according to a new study, establishing the agent as a new standard of care for this population.

Significant improvements in treatment protocols have reduced the incidence of serious chronic late health effects in survivors of childhood cancer treatment.

There is considerable value in having achieved a minimal residual disease negativity for pediatric and adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Female survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia were at risk for neurocognitive impairment and were more susceptible to the effects of sleep disturbance and fatigue compared with their male counterparts.

Younger cancer survivors experience worse survival outcomes following a second primary cancer diagnosis than their older counterparts, according to a recent study.

During maintenance therapy for childhood ALL, there was a general increase in DNA-incorporated thioguanine nucleotides (DNA-TGN), and this increase was associated with a lower frequency of disease relapse.

Minimizing late treatment toxicities in these patients remains an important priority due to both the young age of the patients and the high cure rate that can be achieved.

In this article we discuss the specifics of refining current strategies for radiation delivery, as well as new and up-and-coming heavy particle techniques and radiotherapeutics.

Event-free survival was not maintained in children and adolescents with intermediate-risk malignant germ cell tumors when cisplatin-based chemotherapy was reduced from four to three cycles and compressed from 5 to 3 days per cycles.

The use of several simple improvement measures including a “chemotherapy huddle” can result in a marked, sustained reduction in chemotherapy errors in a pediatric oncology setting.

A study showed that testing pediatric brain tumors for genetic abnormalities is feasible and could play a role in guiding patients’ treatment.

Many childhood brain tumors harbor potentially targetable gene mutations, according to a prospective single-institution study of more than 200 tumor samples, researchers reported in the journal Neuro-Oncology.

Presentation with musculoskeletal manifestations as the only symptom in pediatric B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia was significantly associated with diagnostic delay. However, this delay did not affect patient prognosis.

The use of minimal residual disease provided a more objective measure of induction failure in patients with pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia than did morphology.

The antioxidant sodium thiosulfate protects children and adolescents against cisplatin-induced hearing loss without any added serious adverse effects, according to a randomized study.

Among pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients who have favorable prognosis, an attempt to reduce the burden of chemotherapy by using lower intensity delayed intensification failed to show better outcomes.

As part of our coverage of the ASH Annual Meeting held December 3rd to 6th in San Diego, today we are speaking with Kim Nichols, MD, director of the Cancer Predisposition Division at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. At this year’s meeting, Dr. Nichols will be participating in a session on genetic susceptibility to leukemia.

In this interview we discuss updates, challenges, and contributing factors associated with pediatric brain cancers.