Our Hospital, Our Care
OneMDAnderson approach employs robotic surgery to help a patient get back to the things he loves
Mazen Nadim will always remember 2022 as the year his parents flew him around the world in search of treatment options for an adrenal gland tumor. This small gland near the kidney produces hormones that help regulate heart rate, blood pressure and other functions. His local doctors in Cairo, Egypt, found the tumor on chest and abdominal CT scans they ordered to help investigate what was causing the teen’s chest pain and fatigue nearly a year after he’d contracted COVID-19.
Mazen’s distressed parents sought expertise in Europe and then in the United States. Finally, in February 2022, the family came to MD Anderson and met with Douglas Harrison, M.D., M.S., associate professor of Pediatrics and center medical director for MD Anderson Children’s Cancer Hospital. He examined the 15-year-old and ordered further workup. Good news — the tumor was benign.
More good news came from pediatric surgeon Mary Austin, M.D, M.P.H., F.A.C.S, associate professor of Surgical Oncology, and her colleague, Naruhiko Ikoma, M.D., assistant professor of Surgical Oncology, who performs 90% of his operations on adults using a robot. The family learned elsewhere that open surgery with a large incision would be the only choice for such a young patient, but the MD Anderson specialists — who were already considering offering robotic procedures to pediatric patients — said Mazen would be a good first candidate. As OneMDAnderson, they worked together to successfully perform the highly specialized adrenalectomy. On the way into the operating room, a child life specialist worked with Mazen to reduce his anxiety about becoming the first to receive this history-making surgery. Following a two-night inpatient stay, Mazen was discharged. Today, he is doing very well and has returned to school, sports and his love of horses.
League City location adds pediatric outpatient clinic
MD Anderson League City provided laboratory testing and diagnostic imaging services to nearly 20 pediatric patients in FY22. This was the first time MD Anderson Children’s Cancer Hospital operated at a Houston-area location. With the addition of a pediatric outpatient clinic, MD Anderson providers were able to see patients 8 years and older twice a month. Patients and families in League City appreciate the convenience of obtaining labs, X-rays, ultrasounds and follow-up provider visits close to home.
Pediatric Acute Cancer Care Center offers 24/7 care
As of February 22, 2022, pediatric hematology and oncology patients needing urgent care can visit the Pediatric Acute Cancer Care Center. Specifically designed for children, adolescents and young adults, the Pediatric Acute Cancer Care Center is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our pediatric advanced practice providers, pediatric oncologists and nocturnalists treat patients who have fever, pain, nausea, vomiting and many other conditions requiring urgent attention. Previously, pediatric patients had to visit MD Anderson’s adult Acute Cancer Care Center, which can be intimidating. Patients also no longer have to wait for normal business hours to receive urgent care in a pediatric setting.
“With the opening of the Center, pediatric patients are being admitted and treated in a more expedited manner. Our patients and their families are very satisfied,” says Janet Smith, R.N., M.S.N., C.P.O.N., associate director of Clinical Nursing. Jennifer Rea, R.N., B.S.N., C.P.O.N., is the Pediatric Acute Cancer Care Center nurse manager.
Innovative research improves patient outcomes: Partnering across the institution to expand clinical trial access
The Pediatrics Division has more than 100 active studies available to young patients. The portfolio includes Children’s Oncology Group studies, investigator-initiated trials informed by research in Pediatrics laboratories, industry-sponsored studies and studies derived through the division’s collaboration with adult oncology departments at MD Anderson. Faculty throughout the institution have worked with Pediatrics to reduce the age criteria for patient enrollment in many of these trials. One example is a menin inhibitor trial (2019-0997) for a subset of aggressive leukemias that typically have poor outcomes. This trial of the oral agent, SNDX-5613, began in the Leukemia Department but now includes Branko Cuglievan, M.D., assistant professor of Pediatrics, as a collaborator, who has enrolled approximately 20 patients into the trial. Another example is a trial evaluating a universal chimeric antigen receptor T cell product (UCART) to target the CD22 surface molecule in refractory/relapsed B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (2017-1003). One of seven patients enrolled in this trial as of Aug. 31, 2022, is receiving care in Pediatrics. Kris Mahadeo, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of Pediatrics, is the trial collaborator.
Donor funds support preclinical work in the lab, such as tissue sample acquisition and the study of new drug candidates. Contributions are used in the clinical trials arena to fund the salary of staff who manage patients and offset costs not covered by insurance or industry sponsors, especially for innovative, investigator-initiated clinical trials that are testing novel combination therapies trying to augment our current treatment paradigms.
Next-generation oncology leadership takes time...and a little help
Becoming the next generation of leading oncologists doesn’t happen overnight. For some, the journey can take 11 to 15 years — from college through medical school, residency, fellowship and, in many cases an advanced subspecialty fellowship. The best and brightest bench science trainees also spend over a decade making their goals come true. The journey includes college, graduate school and doctoral programs that offer training under renowned laboratory stars who are already blazing trails in oncology research.
In FY22, five physicians graduated from MD Anderson Children’s Cancer Hospital’s Pediatric Hematology-Oncology programs, with four accepting future roles as assistant professors in the division. One will work in the leukemia/lymphoma section, and another will see non-neural solid tumor patients. Another specialist — the first to complete the Pediatric Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Fellowship Program — will continue in this service, while our recent Pediatric Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship graduate will provide supportive care to our patients.
A research postdoctoral fellow who works in the Kleinerman Laboratory and earned an Odyssey Fellowship in 2021 achieved another feat in 2022 — winning a $50,000 research award from the Sarcoma Foundation of America to support his study of an immunotherapeutic strategy to mitigate osteosarcoma lung metastases. Two graduate research assistants earned doctorates in August from the MD Anderson Cancer Center’s UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences — with support from various stipends and other competitive philanthropic awards. The graduates studied the impact of smoking on leukemia formation and the benefit of aerobic exercise in the tumor microenvironment.
These are just a few of the research accomplishments from our faculty. Learn more about our clinical and research faculty.