The team meets every week to develop individualized treatment plans for each patient and discuss new and current cases. A pediatric oncologist coordinates the multidisciplinary care, which can involve many services, such as pediatric diagnostic imaging, radiation oncology, laboratory medicine, pediatric surgery, pediatric neurosurgery, orthopedics, pediatric pathology and neuropathology. Yale-New Haven also is in the planning stage of instituting the only pediatric bone marrow/ stem cell transplant program in Connecticut.
The Pediatric Oncology Program treats 80-100 new cancer patients a year, and also provides care for complex and challenging benign tumors, as well as sickle cell disease, hemophilia, coagulation abnormalities and platelet disorders. While most pediatric cancer care is delivered on an outpatient basis, when a child’s acute medical needs require hospitalization, pediatric patients are admitted to Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital — which is attached to the newly built Smilow Cancer Hospital on the seventh floor by a walking bridge. The seventh floor of Smilow is devoted to pediatric oncology patients, with more than 5,000 square feet of space that includes four exam rooms, two negative- and two positive-pressure isolation rooms to help keep immunosuppressed or contagious patients healthy, a family lounge area, two consultation rooms and a dedicated infusion room.
In addition to the oncology expertise provided by the pediatric hematology and oncology team, many supportive care services are available, such as social work and child life, clown visitation, and music and massage therapists, to help both children and families to cope with illness and treatment.
Childhood cancer patients at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital are regularly offered enrollment in clinical trials through the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), an organization dedicated to curing childhood cancer by providing national and international clinical trials.