The efforts at Children's Memorial Hospital are not only to refine treatment but to try to maintain as much as possible the normalcy of daily life and family life. Lymphoma Children with lymphoma comprise a significant subgroup of oncologic diagnoses, being the largest single solid tumor type outside the central nervous system. These patients form a very diverse group. The majority of these patients are treated on cooperative group protocols, and current prognoses for nearly every subgroup of patients with lymphoma including those with advanced disease is quite good. Nonetheless, we are still attempting to improve the cure rates for certain high risk groups by increasing and refining treatment intensity.
Treatment is administered in both the inpatient and outpatient setting.
The division head at Children's Memorial Hospital has a longstanding and significant interest in all aspects of lymphoma including the lymphomas which have a more unusual presentation or course and those lymphomas which are associated with the HIV virus infection. In the area of neuroblastoma, we have very active research efforts directed at both laboratory aspects of the biology of this disease and at clinical treatment. Currently, many of our children with neuroblastoma are treated on cooperative group protocols. The current thrust of these protocols is to minimize therapy in early stage disease while attempting to increase the cure rate for patients with more advanced disease. In addition, there is currently an in-house open study for the treatment of patients with advanced neuroblastoma which includes a multidisciplinary approach combining surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and biologic agents.