Advanced Medicine at Siteman Kids

Siteman Kids at St. Louis Children’s Hospital is a national leader in pediatric cancer care. The expertise of WashU Medicine physicians is driving our medical community forward, researching new drugs, procedures, and interventions to develop advancements in care. An area of distinction for our program is our approach to advancing medicine through cutting-edge technology and treatments.

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We are creating new possibilities for our young patients diagnosed with cancer.

Patients at Siteman Kids have access to the highest level of care for their treatment. Treatment plans created specifically for a child’s cancer diagnosis can include multiple interventions that have proven successful for others.  While we offer standard procedures like chemotherapy, surgery and radiation, we excel in specialized areas of oncology as well. 

Advanced Treatment Options at Siteman Kids

Stem cell transplants are a highly specialized, multi-step procedure involving a multidisciplinary team of experts. In the past these were also called “bone marrow transplants.”

A stem cell transplant can benefit children with different illnesses like leukemia, lymphoma, immune disorders or metabolic issues. The transplant procedure uses healthy stem cells that are first collected from the patient or from a donor who is a genetic “match.” These collected cells are infused, or transplanted, after treatment to help rebuild a child’s immune system.

After the transplant, stem cells begin to create healthy blood or immune cells or help make enzymes so the child can fight off possible infections. These procedures take place in a dedicated program at Siteman Kids called the Pediatric Hematopoietic Cell Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program.

Physicians at Siteman Kids are highly trained in target therapies where they can precisely target cancer cells with treatments like proton beam therapy, Gamma Knife radiosurgery and intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). These interventions are not widely used at other pediatric hospitals.

Sometimes genetics are the root cause of a pediatric cancer. For these patients, genomic medicine may be an option. Genomic medicine is a precision medicine where the cancer treatment is designed to attack specific cancer-causing genes.

 

Our team developed a program for chemotherapy ordering that is recognized as a best practice by The Joint Commission.

 

A groundbreaking way to combat cancer is by using cells already the body to recognize, seek out, and kill cancer cells. The general term for this is immunotherapy, or cellular therapy. In some instances, like in CAR T-cell therapy, cells are genetically altered to enable them to hunt and end cancer cells so they cannot spread. Learn more about stem cell transplants and cellular therapies.

St. Louis Children’s hospital has a dedicated, lead-lined room and adjoining suite specifically to administer MIGB therapy. MIGB therapy is an investigational radiation drug used for patients with high-risk neuroblastoma. The adjoining suite allows families to visit with their child after treatment.

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