Birte Wistinghausen, MD, medical director of the Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, the Kravis Children's Hospital and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discusses developing drugs for children with cancer.

Wistinghausen says that one of the challenges with developing drugs for children with cancer is access. New drugs are developed more frequently, and often introduced first, in adult patients. Most of the work being done in the early stages of development is attributed to the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) Phase I Consortium, Wistinghausen says.

This is a very important group for COG, because they can test new drugs in a limited institution setting, and then move them very quickly to a group-wide setting. COG includes over 200 institutions, and if each institution contributes a couple patients, it allows for streamlined drug development, Wistinghausen explains. Through this method, new drugs can then become available for every child in the United States with cancer.

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Birte Wistinghausen, MD, medical director of the Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, the Kravis Children's Hospital and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discusses developing drugs for children with cancer.
 

Dr. Wistinghausen on Developing Drugs for Children With Cancer

Birte Wistinghausen, MD, associate professor, Pediatrics, medical director of the Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, the Kravis Children's Hospital and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discusses targeted therapies for the treatment of pediatric patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).

The Children’s Oncology Group is currently conducting trials with targeted therapies in the frontline setting. ANHL1131 is a phase II/III trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of rituximab (Rituxan) in children or adolescents with higher-risk NHL. These are patients with B-cell lymphoma or B-cell leukemia, says Wistinghausen.

There is also an open study evaluating chemotherapy in combination with brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) or crizotinib (Xalkori) in patients with newly diagnosed stage III/IV anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL). Brentuximab vedotin is an anti-CD30 antibody, and ALCL expresses CD30, says Wistinghausen. Crizotinib is an ALK inhibitor, and more than 95% of pediatric patients with ALCL are 

positive. The study, ANHL12P1, is currently recruiting for the crizotinib arm.

Birte Wistinghausen, MD, associate professor, Pediatrics, medical director of the Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, the Kravis Children's Hospital and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discusses targeted therapies for the treatment of pediatric patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
 

Dr. Wistinghausen Discusses Targeted Therapies for Pediatric NHL

Birte Wistinghausen, MD, medical director of the Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, the Kravis Children's Hospital and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discusses the treatment of pediatric patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).

Children and adolescents diagnosed with NHL in the US can expect an event-free survival of 85% to 90% with the currently-available treatments. Birte says that chemotherapy may have reached its limit as a treatment option for these patients. Additionally, the toxicities associated with long-term chemotherapy use is concerning for some clinicians, leading The Children's Oncology Group (COG) to investigate other ways of treating these patients, such as targeted therapies.

Birte, a member of the COG, says that the organization is currently investigating targeted therapies as treatment options for pediatric patients with NHL. The COG is currently involved in 5 studies, which could change the face of pediatric NHL treatment. For example, the phase II/III trial ANHL1131 is evaluating the efficacy and safety of rituximab (Rituxan) in children or adolescents with higher-risk stages of B-cell lymphoma or B-cell leukemia.

Birte Wistinghausen, MD, medical director of the Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, the Kravis Children's Hospital and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discusses the treatment of pediatric patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Birte Wistinghausen, MD

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Dr. Wistinghausen on Developing Drugs for Children With Cancer

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Dr. Wistinghausen Discusses the Treatment of Pediatric NHL