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At Cook Children’s Medical Center, collaboration is an important weapon in the hospital’s battle to find improved treatments – and ultimately, a cure – for cancers affecting young people in Fort Worth and beyond.
The hospital has played support or starring roles in notable collaborative projects related to the treatment of two common childhood cancers and also contributed to a project investigating the results of gaming technology on treatment outcomes for adolescent and young adult patients. One such project involved patients affected by neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nervous system. The most common extra-cranial solid tumor affecting children and the most common cancer found in infants, neuroblastoma often presents with vague, unspecific symptoms, which can result in initial diagnosis in the late stages of the disease. "Neuroblastoma often relapses after treatment, and presently the ultimate outcome is unfortunate," said Dr. Meaghan Granger, medical director for Cook Children’s Hematology and Oncology Center."As a key collaborator with the nation’s leading pediatric cancer research organizations, Cook Children’s offers patients the best available treatments and also contributes to the search for a cure for neuroblastoma," she said. Some of the hospital’s neuroblastoma clinical trials focus on treatment issues related to relapsed and reoccurring neuroblastoma, according to Granger. Other trials are designed to identify new therapies for neuroblastoma cells resistant to established chemotherapy and radiation. Another example of the hospital’s focus on collaboration is found in a recently concluded clinical trial for children with newly diagnosed acute lymphocytic leukemia, or ALL, that was conducted in partnership with St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. "This was a first for both St. Jude’s and for Cook Children’s," said Dr. W. Paul Bowman, a pediatric oncologist at Cook Children’s. "Previously, St. Jude’s did not outsource any clinical trials to other institutions without patients being sent to St. Jude’s." Bowman said that the general objective of the trial was to improve survival rates for patients afflicted by this form of leukemia. Specifically, the trial examined the feasibility of removing radiation therapy and using the detection of "minimal residual disease," or MRD, to make treatment decisions. "The results of the trial show an overall five-year survival rate of 94 percent among participants," said Bowman. "It also proved that it’s possible to avoid or delay radiation therapy when treating newly-diagnosed patients.Another recent study supported by the Cook Children’s team investigated the potential benefits of using video game technology to improve treatment outcomes for adolescents and young adults with cancer. Participating patients were given copies of "Re-Mission," a 20-level, three-dimensional video game where players lead Roxxi, the game’s nanobot heroine, "through challenging missions and rapid-fire assaults on malignant cancer cells, wherever they hide," according to the game’s Web site. "Treatment adherence and survival rates of people ages 15 to 40 are dismal compared to children younger than 15 and adults over 40," said Lisa Bashore, a program manager for Cook Children’s. "We want to improve that gap, so why not use Internet or computer technology to do so?" she said. "The patients who played the game during the study had better clinical attendance, improved knowledge, and felt better about themselves."
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