The Children's Cancer Group (CCG) of Oregon of the Doernbecher Memorial Hospital for Children (DMHC), provides the children of the Pacific Northwest the opportunity to participate in multi-disciplinary cooperatiye clinical trials for the treatment of cancer. Without the CCG-Oregon Program's link to these treatment regimens, children with cancer from this region would be treated randomly. The DMHC has been a member of the CCG since 1977. Since then, 1538 new patients have been accrued. Of these, 65% have been placed on CCG studies. Approximately 71 new pediatric cancer patients are entered on CCG studies each year. Today over 400 surviving cancer patients are managed by the program. The CCG-Oregon program consistently has ranked at the top of the CCG roster for percentage of forms accepted (rank of l at 97%), percent study patient eligibility (100%), and percent radiation reports accepted (100%). OHSU has received a Cancer Center Planning Grant and is in the process of formulating its application for Cancer Center designation. A program project grant has been submitted to investigate the clinical and laboratory aspects of blood brain barrier disruption as a mechanism for delivering high dose chemotherapy to CNS tumors. Dr. Neerhout is the pediatric consultant to these projects and will coordinate the clinical aspects so as to complement the CCG activities of the program. The OHSU is the regional resource for tumor surface markers, flow cytometry, electron microscopy, cytogenetics and metabolic markers. The OHSU has been one regional center for heart, kidney, and liver transplants. In 1991, OHSU opened a pediatric bone marrow transplant unit. Patient accrual for autologous and allogeneic transplants is estimated to be 12 - 14 patients annually. Clinical research within the CCG-Oregon program includes the treatment of retinoblastoma, autologous/allogeneic transplantation for recurrent solid tumors, therapy of histiocytosis and the use of blood brain barrier disruption for CNS leukemia/lymphoma. A regional perfusion program is utilized for selected extremity sarcomas.
