Pediatrics Oncology Group

Berry, Daisilee

Abstract

The goal of this project is to achieve multidisciplinary clinical research in pediatric oncology at Arkansas Children's Hospital (ACH), the pediatric teaching hospital of the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences Campus (UAMSC).
The specific aims are: (1) To facilitate multidisciplinary clinical research in conjunction with other pediatric specialists with similar interests in the Pediatric Oncology Group (POG) with the intent of cure of childhood cancer. (2) To facilitate study of the biology of cancer cells from childhood malignancies by the exchange of specimens and expertise among institutions. (3) To facilitate the passage of the information gained from these investigations to the education program of medical, paramedical and non-medical persons. Participation in POG research permits fruitful intellectual exchange of ideas by multidisciplinary investigators in addition to providing a mechanism for pooling data and resources. The College of Medicine faculty of multidisciplinary investigators at ACH include pediatric oncologist, pathologists, surgeons, neurosurgeons, neurologists, radiologists, pharmacologists, genetists, immunologists, and radiation therapists. During the past several years all of these investigators have attended POG meetings and participated in data interpretation and protocol design. This type of group participation facilitates data accession on all oncology patients from the time of diagnosis until the time of final contact. This genuine interest of these well trained specialists has resulted in the increase in the number of patients entered in protocols and our outstanding evaluability rating. ACH is the only pediatric facility in Arkansas where multidisciplinary care is available as well as all types of tertiary care. It is natural that it should serve as the care, teaching and research facility for pediatrics for the state of Arkansas. It is the place of all education programs in pediatrics for all medical and paramedical personnel of UAMSC, for professional continuing education programs as well for other state universities and hospital based programs.