May 30, 2017

The Clinical Research Center/Research Resources Office presented the Clinical Research Award for Second Quarter 2017 to Kathy McCarthy, research nurse, Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers.

This award was established by the Clinical Research Center in collaboration with the Research Resources Office to recognize and honor individual contributions to protecting the best interest of the research subjects and compliance with applicable rules and regulations.

McCarthy’s research activities in the CRC focus on conducting clinical trials of new agents to treat pediatric cancers. She actively participates in the screening and management of patients enrolled on Phase I and II clinical trials, as well as supportive care for these patients and their families.

Peyton Richardson was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) in January 2015. For the next two years, she and her doctors at Texas Children’s Cancer Center worked together to combat her disease. On May 15, they won their fight and Peyton rang the end-of-treatment bell in front of a crowd of friends, family and clinical staff in the Cancer Center’s infusion area.

During an emotional speech, Peyton thanked everyone for the help they gave her along the way.

“Without my cancer journey, I would not have met some of these amazing people,” she said through tears. “I love everyone here so much. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

Peyton’s primary doctor at the Cancer Center, Dr. ZoAnn Dryer, said Peyton’s bell ringing signifies the completion of two and a half long, hard years of treatment.

“This is it,” Dryer said. “From here on out, it’s just blood counts and check-ups.”

Carrie Richardson, Peyton’s mom, said the fact that her daughter is cancer free hasn’t really hit her because her family has been on the road to recovery for so long.

“It’s overwhelming,” she said. “We are just so thankful for everything that Texas Children’s has done for us.”

Roger Richardson, Peyton’s dad, expressed his appreciation as well.

“I’m very happy,” he said. “I’m so glad Peyton is here and has gotten to this point.”

To read more about Peyton’s path to recovery, including her being chosen to ride on a float at the 127th Rose Parade for Northwestern Mutual, and her writing and recording a song with Dr. Jennifer Arnold, click here and here.

May 23, 2017

On May 16, Michael Phelps visited with patients at Texas Children’s Cancer Center and was honored at the 12th annual An Evening with a Legend event.

Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, started his day at Texas Children’s by making a special visit to the Cancer Center to spend time with patients and their families. During the one-on-one room visits, Phelps offered words of encouragement and let the families know they are not alone in the fight. As someone who accomplished a seemingly unattainable feat in his career, Phelps emphasized the importance of pushing forward with continued endurance.

Later that evening, nearly 650 guests enjoyed an unforgettable evening at the Hilton Americas – Houston’s Ballroom of the Americas for the 12th annual An Evening with a Legend event honoring Phelps.

Benefiting Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers, the evening included a beautiful seated dinner, exciting paddle raise and an intimate conversation with Phelps, moderated by Emmy® award-winning journalist Andrea Kremer. Guests had the opportunity to learn about Phelps’ journey to become a gold medal legend and what is in store for the next phase of his life.

“Michael Phelps was a wonderful legend,” said Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers Director Dr. David Poplack. “He is a sincere, empathetic person who cares deeply about the issues faced by children with cancer. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to host him and appreciate his support for all that we do.”

Co-chaired by Shelley Barineau, Julie Bergen, Ned Torian and Kathy Zay, the event raised more than $1.2 million for the Cancer Center. Carmen and Butch Mach and Kelli and John Weinzierl served as honorary chairs for the event.

Click here to hear from the co-chairs and to learn more about the Evening with a Legend event. To hear from past legends honored at the event, click here.

May 16, 2017

The moment Hellen Weberpal’s bow hit her cello, 13-month-old Kimberly Guerra was mesmerized. The little girl shot up in her seat in her inpatient room on the ninth floor of the Cancer Center and watched Weberpal as she played her instrument. During the 10-minute serenade, Kimberly smiled, giggled and clapped in joyous wonder.

Weberpal, a Houston Symphony Community-Embedded Musician, said she has had many experiences at Texas Children’s similar to the one she had with Kimberly.

“Every time I come to the hospital I enjoy it,” she said. “There’s never a day that I don’t have a good time getting to see these kids.”

Weberpal is one of four community-embedded musicians who come to Texas Children’s Cancer Center weekly as part of a partnership between the Periwinkle Arts In Medicine Program at Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers and the Houston Symphony. During their visits, the string players perform at the bedside of inpatients, lead a small music education class with patients and their siblings, and work with Purple Songs Can Fly to create unique scores tailored for each child.

View photos below from some of the musician’s visits.

The purpose of the partnership is to expose children to classical music and give them a sense of normalcy they often don’t get in a hospital setting, said Emily Nelson, the manager of education and community programming for the Houston Symphony.

“One of the benefits we’ve heard from the hospital staff and families is that the musical interactions give the patients a sense of control,” Nelson said. “They get to choose if they want slow music, fast music or even no music at all.”

When Weberpal visited 8-year-old Eduardo Castro’s hospital room, he asked her to play something fast, something slow and then something very specific – the music played in Star Wars when Darth Vader is on screen. Weberpal delivered Eduardo’s request without a hitch, concluding her visit with a smile and a high five.

“I’m always happy to meet another Star Wars fan,” Weberpal said.

Through observations, Carol Herron, coordinator of the Periwinkle Arts In Medicine Program, has noticed the encounters between the musicians and the patients are much more than a show-and-tell type performance.

“There’s a connection that these musicians make,” she said. “That is what makes these relationships so special.”

To learn more about the Houston Symphony’s Community-Embedded Musician initiative, click here. To learn more about the Periwinkle Arts and Medicine Program at Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers, click here.

April 11, 2017

Ensuring that childhood cancer survivors in Texas receive health care that meets their unique needs has been the focus of the Passport for Care, developed by Texas Children’s Cancer Center and Baylor College of Medicine’s Center for Collaborative and Interactive Technologies, since it launched in 2008. A recent grant from the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas expands the innovative, web-based program to reach even more survivors. The $1.5 million grant is the third from CPRIT for the Passport for Care project.

Texas is home to more than 35,000 survivors of childhood, adolescent and young adult cancer who face late effects of their cancer treatment that may impact their quality of life or even be life-threatening. Some of these late effects include infertility, second malignancies and cardiac failure. But childhood cancer survivors face obstacles in receiving quality care, including lack of access to cancer treatment summaries and limited knowledge – by the survivors themselves and by primary care physicians – of the risks for late effects and guidelines for follow-up screenings.

“Health concerns for childhood cancer patients do not end when their cancer treatment is successfully completed, but it can be complicated for survivors and their physicians to keep up with health care recommendations,” said Dr. David Poplack, director of Texas Children’s Cancer Center, the Elise C. Young Chair of Pediatric Oncology at Baylor College of Medicine and co-developer of Passport for Care. “We developed Passport for Care to translate complex follow-up guidelines into a user-friendly, personalized care plan.”

Passport for Care was launched with a clinician website that uses an algorithm to generate a set of potential late effects based on the survivor’s treatment history and deliver a corresponding set of follow-up screening recommendations based on Children’s Oncology Group guidelines. This clinician-based site is in use at 14 childhood cancer centers in Texas, reaching about 5,000 survivors. The survivors’ website was the next phase of Passport for Care, allowing childhood cancer survivors to have direct access to their treatment information and screening recommendations; about 2,800 survivors have enrolled.

With this latest CPRIT grant, Passport for Care will be expanded across Texas, targeting additional cancer clinics as well as individuals in the Texas Cancer Registry, a database of all cancer survivors in the state. Through outreach initiatives to survivors and clinicians, including a social media campaign, the goal is to double the number of Texans enrolled in Passport for Care. Other goals include improving the functionality of the Passport for Care survivors’ website and evaluating the program, including knowledge and follow-through of health and screening recommendations.

“Our goals through this CPRIT-supported expansion are to reach childhood cancer survivors across Texas, increase the number of people who understand the risks of late effects and expand the number of survivors who seek follow-up screening and care to reduce the potential morbidity and mortality resulting from the late effects of cancer therapy,” Poplack said.

Childhood cancer survivors interested in accessing Passport for Care can find more information online.

Texas Children’s Cancer Center is a joint program of Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital and the pediatric program of the NCI-designated Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

February 28, 2017

Twenty years ago, a young girl named Gracie was treated for leukemia at Texas Children’s Hospital. Despite the difficult circumstances her own family was facing, support from extended family and friends empowered Gracie’s parents to have the eyes to see beyond their own situation. Within the walls of Texas Children’s Hospital and the compassionate, creative mind of Erin Kiltz, Gracie’s mother, the idea for a foundation that would bring comfort to people going through similar situations was born.

His Grace Foundation began its work on Valentine’s Day in 1997 by serving a gourmet, family style meal to the caregivers on the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit. This “touch of home” type of service was inspired by the support the Kiltz family received during Gracie’s time at Texas Children’s Hospital, and the realization that their strong support system was not the norm.

Today, His Grace Foundation focuses its efforts on providing physical, emotional and financial support to patients and families on the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, ensuring a legacy of hope and care for patients and caregivers alike.

“His Grace Foundation exists to help ease the multitude of stressors faced by families with children on the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit of Texas Children’s Hospital,” said His Grace Foundation Executive Director Val Anderson. “We want families to be able to focus on supporting their child during the crucial treatment and recovery period.”

Some of the services offered by the foundation include: emergency funding, educational support and scholarships, arts in medicine programming, massage therapy, holiday and birthday celebrations, and temporary housing while families are required to maintain close proximity to the hospital. Additional services include a personalized gift basket that is given to patients when they arrive on the unit, necessities for family members, free parking for patient families, several monthly catered meals and weekly shopping runs.

Richard Daphne, whose daughter spent about 14 months on the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, said His Grace Foundation is “wonderful in so many ways.”

In addition to providing him and his wife with housing during a bulk of the time the couple was in Houston for their daughter’s care, His Grace Foundation staff and volunteers made numerous shopping runs, purchasing necessities and items their daughter simply wanted such as fuzzy socks and soft blankets. Staff and volunteers also supplied the family with plenty of smiles and hugs.

“They brought a bright spot into what was a pretty dark time,” Daphne said. “You can tell they really love what they do.”

Child Life Specialist Regina Burdett has worked on the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit for the past four years and has developed a deep appreciation for the services His Grace Foundation offers patients and families.

“The things they do go a long way,” Burdett said. “They provide things families don’t realize they need, including a fresh, friendly face and some social interaction from someone off the unit that they don’t encounter every day.”

Staff and volunteers with His Grace Foundation celebrated their 20th anniversary by doing what they do best – serving the families on the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit. Throughout the day, staff and volunteers served meals, distributed goodie bags, provided massages and spread good cheer to some of those at the hospital who need it the most.

To learn more about His Grace Foundation or offer support click here. To learn more about Texas Children’s Bone Marrow Transplant program click here.

February 21, 2017

Cancer patients fighting one of the toughest forms of the disease – neuroblastoma – now have another treatment option at Texas Children’s Cancer Center.

I-131 MIBG, a targeted nuclear medicine therapy that combines metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) with radioactive iodine (I-131), is now being offered at Texas Children’s Cancer Center, one of only a few centers in the nation where children can receive treatment with I-131 MIBG.

The therapy is administered intravenously and takes less than two hours. However once the infusion is complete, the patient needs to stay in a specially-equipped, lead-lined hospital room for several days for monitoring.

The Cancer Center in partnership with the Department of Pediatric Radiology opened an I-131 MIBG therapy suite January 25 on the ninth floor of West Tower. The suite contains three rooms: a lead-lined patient room where the therapy is administered, an adjoining room with a lead-lined viewing window where family members can spend the night and be with their child throughout the entire procedure, and an entry area where clinicians can meet, consult and observe the patient.

At an intimate ribbon cutting for the new suite, Deputy Director of the Cancer Center Dr. Susan Blaney said the opening of the suite represents a “tremendous milestone and a phenomenal effort on behalf of professionals from across the hospital.”

“Neuroblastoma is very challenging to treat and to have this option to offer patients to help them conquer this disease is tremendous,” she said, adding that it can be used to treat patients locally as well as regionally and beyond since there are only a handful of pediatric hospitals in the nation equipped with the expertise and infrastructure to offer the treatment.

The Department of Pediatric Radiology was heavily involved in the planning, design, simulation and execution of the suite and members of its nuclear radiology staff will administer the treatment.

“Being able to offer this treatment is a testament to our multidisciplinary approach to caring for our patients,” said Nuclear Radiology Division Chief Dr. Robert Orth. “By working with our Cancer Center colleagues, we can pull together our expertise to provide opportunities for the best possible outcomes.”

Co-Director of Texas Children’s Cancer Center’s Neuroblastoma Program Dr. Jennifer Foster said being able to offer I-131 MIBG therapy makes the Cancer Center a one-stop-shop for neuroblastoma patients and opens the door for additional referrals from areas across the country and globe. The suite also gives physicians like herself the ability to explore the use of I-131 MIGB therapy in combination with other therapies as part of novel clinical trials.

“We are very excited about having this treatment capability at Texas Children’s,” Foster said.

Patrick DeClaire, a neuroblastoma patient at the Cancer Center, and his family attended the ribbon cutting ceremony.

“I’m so pleased that families like ours will have the option of receiving this therapy at Texas Children’s,” Laurie DeClaire, Patrick’s mother, said.