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HEMATOLOGY AND ONCOLOGY*

*see also the ASPHO Annual Meeting Program 

9:15am – 12:00pm
Mini Course
4010 Long-Term Effects of Childhood Cancer
Chair: Smita Bhatia, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA
This mini-course will address several of the major topics of interest relating to the long-term health status and psychosocial functioning of individuals diagnosed and treated for cancer during childhood and adolescence. Topics to be presented include endocrinologic sequelae, risk of subsequent malignancies, psychosocial late-effects, and educational/intervention strategies.

9:15am – 12:00pm
Mini Course
4011 Stem Cell Transplantation
Chair: Nancy Bunin, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
This mini course will provide participants with an update on both the current status and future of stem cell transplant in pediatrics. Both malignant and non-malignant diseases will be addressed. Advances in graft engineering have made many of these advances possible, and this will be discussed in an overview of autologous stem cell transplant for solid tumors. Allogeneic stem cell transplant may be curative for some patients with hemoglobinopathies and metabolic diseases. Non-myeloablative approaches to hemoglobinopathies are a relatively novel approach, which may be curative without some of the short and long-term toxicities of a myeloablative regimen. Disease-specific characteristics that impact upon transplant outcome of patients with inherited metabolic storage disorders will be identified and discussed. Finally, the concepts of mesenchymal cell transplant and the future of mesenchymal cell transplant therapy will be summarized and discussed.

12:00pm – 3:00pm
Mini Course
4104 The New Pediatrics in the Genomic Era
Chair: Isaac Kohane, Lyle Palmer and Scott Pomeroy, Children's Hospital, Boston, MA
The sequencing of the human genome and the availability of large-scale genomic measurement technologies will change the manner in which clinical care and pediatric research is conducted. We will address how these genomic technologies, bioinformatics and genetic epidemiology can be applied in these endeavors.

1:00pm – 3:00pm
Platform Session
4181 Hematology–Oncology I
Chairs: Douglas R. Strother and Winifred Wang
Includes ASPHO Young Investigator Award and SPR David G. Nathan Award Lectures

1:00pm – 3:00pm
Poster Symposium
4182 Historical Perspectives
Chairs: Thor Willy Hansen and James Kendig

3:15pm – 5:15pm
Topic Symposium
4200 Cloning and Embryonic Stem Cells
Chair: Judith Hall, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
There is enormous public interest in cloning and embryonic stem cells. This symposium will update the pediatric community on recent developments and raises a variety of policy and ethical issues.

3:15pm – 5:15pm
Topic Symposium
4202 Stroke in Childhood
Chair: Donna Ferriero, University of California, San Francisco, CA
This session will update physicians on epidemiology and risk factors for perinatal and childhood stroke. Emphasis will be placed on identifying risk factors, increasing recognition, and providing possibilities for treatment.

5:15pm – 7:15pm
Poster Session I (Author Attended)
and Opening Reception
– Hematology and Oncology

8:00am – 10:00am
Platform Session
5053 Hematology–Oncology II
Chairs: Valerie P. Castle and Donald H. Mahoney
Includes ASPHO Young Investigator Award Lecture

11:45am – 1:45pm
Poster Session II (Author Attended)
– Hematology and Oncology
– Neonatology

1:45pm – 2:30pm
State of the Art Plenary
5590 Children as Victims of Bioterrorism: Protecting the Fragile Host
Chairs: Phyllis Dennery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA and Tina Lee Cheng, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
With the recent world events and new threats of biowarfare, what should pediatricians know? Due to their size and physiology, children are at higher risk of injury from bioterrorism. This session will address the biology, clinical manifestations, and possible preventive strategies for likely biowarfare agents. The unique vulnerability of the child will be addressed.

2:00pm – 4:00pm
Topic Symposium
5700 Cancer, Blood and the Kidney: Common Themes
Chairs: Ellis D. Avner, President-Elect, American Society of Pediatric Nephrology and George R. Buchanan, President, American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
Many children with cancer, hematological disorders, or kidney disease have complex, multisystem problems. Advances in cell and molecular biology provide insights into the interrelationships of cancer, blood, and the kidney and have led to new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for the clinician. Such approaches are reviewed in this symposium, which focuses specifically on the nephrological complications of sickle cell anemia and bone marrow transplantation, hematological complications of nephrotic syndrome, and the molecular pathophysiology of WT-1-associated disorders.

2:00pm – 4:00pm
State of the Art Plenary
5701 Children as Research Subjects: Ethical and Regulatory Issues
Chair: Myron Genel, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT
A number of highly publicized adverse events, including the death of two volunteers participating in non-therapeutic research, and the federal shutdown of research at many well-recognized academic institutions because of inadequate compliance with regulatory requirements have intensified scrutiny of the protection afforded to human subjects participating in research, including children. Furthermore a Maryland court has recently decreed that children cannot participate in research without the potential for direct benefit. As a consequence there has been increasing media attention and Congressional concern regarding the adequacy of institutional oversight and investigator attentiveness to established standards and regulations. In addition, new regulations issued under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of l996(HIPAA) threaten the capacity to conduct health services and outcomes research. These issues will be addressed in the 9th annual Public Policy Plenary Symposium in an interactive format intended to stimulate dialogue among the members of the panel and with the audience.

2:30pm – 4:00pm
State of the Art Plenary
5702 Developmental Biology and Pediatrics
Chair: David H. Rowitch, Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA
Basic studies of developmental biology can have profound implications for child health and disease. In this State of the Art Plenary Plenary, pediatric investigators at the forefront of basic science will describe recent advances in our understanding of development of the central nervous system, heart and blood with implications for the pathophysiology of congenital malformations, acquired disease and pediatric cancer.

4:15pm – 6:15pm
Topic Symposium
5800 End-of-Life Palliative Care
Chair: Marcia Levetown, Independent Pain and Palliative Care Consultant, Houston, TX
53,000 children die annually in the United States and many more live with chronic, life-threatening conditions. Yet, pediatric education and subspecialty training do not currently prepare practitioners to care for these needy children, their parents, community and survivors. This symposium, presented by a pediatric hematologist/oncologist, pediatric palliative care physician and a bereaved parent, will discuss how to incorporate palliative care into pediatric care. Specific highlights are the presentation of an integrated model of care, beginning at the time of diagnosis of a potentially life-threatening condition, parental and patient perspectives on the fight against disabling symptoms and death, and the ethics behind the decision-making process that confronts the family and medical care team.

10:00am – 11:45am
State of the Art Plenary
7201 Regenerative Medicine—From Stem Cells to Tissues
Chair: Clifford W. Bogue, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT
The potential to repair tissues and organs from stem cells has generated great excitement over the past year. Many diseases and pathological conditions, such as liver failure, spinal cord injury, Alzheimer’s disease and myocardial infarction, are now being viewed as potentially curable conditions through the use of stem cells. This session will focus on the developmental biology of stem cells and their amazing ability to give rise to many different fully-differentiated cell types. Investigators in the field of stem cell biology will discuss the potential advantages and limitations of using human embryonic stem cells, the plasticity of bone marrow-derived stem cells, and the therapeutic use of stem cells to regenerate damaged organs.

10:00am – 11:45am
State of the Art Plenary
7202 Pharmacogenomics: Clinical and Therapeutic Implications
Chairs: James Padbury, Women & Infant's Hospital of Rhode Island, Brown University, Providence, RI
The availability of high density sequence databases for large segments of the human genome has lead to the identification of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in many important genes. If these SNPs occur in regulatory regions of important catalytic proteins, occur in binding domains of transmembrane signaling molecules or occur in the regulatory region of a gene, they can profoundly affect the function of that gene and on an individual patient basis. It has become clear these mechanisms account for some of the highly variable, once considered "idiosyncratic", responses to drug therapy. Pharmacogenomics is the study of how genetics affects responses to drugs. Pharmacogenomics holds the promise that drugs might one day be tailor-made for and adapted to each person's own genetic makeup. In this symposium speakers will present prominent examples of how pharmacogenomic implications affect the biology of disease and therapy from the fields of behavioral genetics and sychotherapeutics, cancer chemotherapy and the treatment of asthma. The perspectives presented will help the attendee understand a pathobiological and clinically sound approach to these disorders. The discussion will include basic science, clinical research and an industry perspective on this rapidly emerging area of importance.

1:45pm – 3:45pm
Hot Topic
7702 Disaster Preparedness: Beyond 9/11
Chairs: Tina L. Cheng, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD; Danelle Laraque, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY; and Benard Dreyer, New York, NY
The impact of 9/11 and the public health aftermath have affected us personally and professionally. This session will address what the child health professional needs to know regarding disaster planning and preparedness. Speakers will review and provide updates on national and regional systems for emergency management and how those systems interact with local public health agencies, the pediatrician's role in the community's preparedness including what the school system, the pediatric office and the patient should be doing to prepare and respond, recognition and management of chemical and biologic agents of terrorism, and the psychological reactions to disaster and stress.

Disaster Planning and Preparedness for Child Health Professionals
George L. Foltin, New York University School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital Center, New York, NY
Biologic Agents of Terrorism
Anne Fine, New York City Department of Health, New York, NY
Chemical Agents of Terrorism
Fred Henretig, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Helping Children Cope with Terrorism and Disasters
David J. Schonfeld, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT
Discussion