July 2010 Newsletter
Strong Affiliations with the Dana-Faber Cancer Institute and the Children's Oncology Group
For 25 years, the Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) has been a major part of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children’s Oncology Group leukemia research network. URMC’s involvement began with the leadership of Barbara Asselin, M.D., of this initiative and continues with Lisa Hackney, M.D., a pediatric hematologist-oncologist recently recruited to Rochester from Pittsburgh.
The leukemia research network is aimed at improving the outcomes and decreasing the side effects of treatment of leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells, in children. Cancer is fortunately uncommon enough in children that no single medical center has enough patients each year to adequately and expediently test new therapies. “Team” research is the only way we can hope to change the outcomes of childhood cancers for the better.