Cancer - Children's Hospital Boston

300 Longwood Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
(617) 355-6000

Clinical Services (Cancer):

History of Innovations

Experts at Children's Hospital Boston and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute are internationally known for their laboratory and clinical research findings. In addition to offering the most Phase I clinical trials in New England, laboratory researchers at Children's and Dana-Farber examine every aspect of cancer from its scientific origin to molecular response to new drug combinations. As a result, findings from Children's and Dana-Farber have been responsible for dozens of advances in the treatment of pediatric cancer that have resulted in improved survival rates for nearly every variety of childhood cancer.

Key accomplishments include:

First successful remission of childhood leukemia by Sidney Farber, MD, in 1947.
Introduction of multiple agent treatment (combination chemotherapy) for leukemia in 1972. With successful improvements, we have attained childhood leukemia cure rates of close to 80 percent.
Leadership in developing the first effective chemotherapy for acute myelogenous leukemia (AML).
Leadership in developing novel oligonucleotide defibrotide as a promising new treatment for hepatic veno-occlusive disease, a major complication following stem cell transplantation.
First human bone marrow transplants using ex vivo induction of tolerance as a method to control alloreactivity (the inability to transplant across histiocompatibility barriers).
First published experience with double autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplant for high-risk neuroblastoma.
Leadership in clinical trials for Ewing's sarcoma; five-year event-free survival rates are now at approximately 70 percent.
Initiated first antiangiogenic treatment trials for pediatric brain tumors.

Other notables include:

Dana-Farber and Children's have both consistently been named in the top five of the nation's best pediatric and cancer hospitals by U.S.News & World Report.
Physicians from all over the world come to Boston to study pediatric hematology/oncology through the combined Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Children's Hospital Boston's pediatric hematology-oncology fellowship program. This program has trained more leaders in the hematology and oncology field than any other. In fact, approximately 40 percent of the Hematology/Oncology Division Chiefs in the United States were trained through our program.



	The information on this website should not be taken as medical advice, which can only be given to you by your personal health care professional.

	Copyright © Children's Hospital Boston. All rights reserved.