Developmental Therapeutics
The advent of genomic medicine coupled with unprecedented advances in cancer biology has significantly accelerated the translation of basic research discoveries into potential new treatments for children with cancer.
The Developmental Therapeutics Program includes physicians and staff with expertise in childhood cancer, clinical pharmacology, and clinical trial design. Researchers are focused on improving the efficacy and safety of anticancer drug therapies by evaluating and optimizing treatment regimens, as well as testing promising new treatments for children with high-risk and relapsed/refractory cancer. The program provides clinical trial expertise and infrastructure to design and conduct early phase clinical trials in Oncology. We focus on sustaining a stable and efficient infrastructure for clinical research and investigator-initiated trials that foster an iterative model of translational and clinical science among CCCR investigators.
The efforts of investigators at the CCCR include:
- Investigator-initiated clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of innovative treatment regimens and new anticancer agents
- Leadership in cooperative group early phase clinical trials for children with relapsed or refractory cancer
- Institutional pharmacokinetic studies and clinical pharmacology support for cooperative group trials to characterize how infants, children and adolescents distribute and metabolize drugs
- Translate promising results from preclinical models into new therapeutic approaches for children with cancer
- Evaluation of biomarkers that can improve efficiency of clinical trials and may aid in diagnosis, treatment selection/responsiveness, and better predict clinical outcomes in children with cancer
The ability of researchers at the Center for Childhood Cancer Research to quickly translate laboratory-based discoveries into clinically relevant therapies offers enormous promise for pediatric cancer patients.