Following referral to University Hospitals, each patient is assigned a primary physician and nurse who supervise and coordinate the multidisciplinary team. They communicate with, and educate, patients and parents. They also finalize treatment plans and communicate with the referring physician.

Services

To simplify protocol complexity, a data managment team provides computerized, patient specific and date specific, treatment forms. These forms provide a detailed list of drugs and procedures, related potential toxicities, dosage and dose modifications, that allow oncologists and nononcologists to follow protocols accurately and efficiently. The forms serve as a standard method of communication and medical documentation, having been approved as official medical records. Computer forms, along with a 24-hour hot line for consultation, and extensive family counseling and education, have resulted in a very successful partnership between University Hospitals and over 200 referring physicians. The program was the first in the nation to have 100 percent protocol compliance in 1991.

To facilitate social adjustment and acceptance, a school reentry program was initiated recently at no cost to the patient, whereby an oncology nurse performs an on-site conference with the school nurse, principal, teachers, and classmates.

The pediatric cancer program is a full member participant in the Children's Cancer Group, The National Wilms' Tumor Study, and The Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study. Through a combination of local and national protocols, all pediatric cancer patients receive state-of-the-art care. Frequently seen pediatric cancers are treated according to national or local protocols. Patients with rare tumors are treated according to patient specific protocols. Besides standard chemotherapeutic agents, surgery, radiation therapy, and supportive care, treatment modalities include investigational chemotherapeutic agents, immunotherapy, biotherapy, chemoembolization, brachytherapy, intraoperative radiation therapy, and cryotherapy. The Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Program offers several modalities for transplantation-in addition to the classical allogeneic and autologous transplants, a unique method of T-cell depletion allows patients to receive a transplant from matched unrelated donors, and partially matched or mismatched related donors, widening significantly the range of transplant possibilities.