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- Cancer: Questions to Ask Your Child's Physician
- Cancer and Clinical Trials
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For Patients, Families & Visitors
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Cancer
Innovations in Care
Radiation Oncology
Our radiation oncology team has special expertise in the treatment of children. A radiation oncologist trained in the care of childhood cancer meets with each patient to develop an individualized treatment plan. In addition, physicists, dosimetrists, and nurses are available to help children and their families.
The Division's radiation oncology service provides radiation therapy for many cancers alone or in combination with surgery and chemotherapy. Radiation treatments are used in children as an adjunct to therapy for brain tumors, Hodgkin's disease, and solid tumors such as Wilms' tumors, sarcomas, and neuroblastoma.
Radiation oncology technologies include electron beam radiation and brachytherapy, a type of radiation therapy used in conjunction with surgery in which radioactive materials are placed in direct contact with the tissue being treated.
Advanced computer technologies are also used for treatment, including 3-D technology and intensity modulated radiation therapy. Noninvasive sterotactic radiosurgery is provided for patients with brain tumors. In this approach, stereotactic therapy is delivered as both a single dose radiation treatment with the gamma knife or with multiple smaller doses of precisely placed and targeted treatment.
The radiation oncology team also performs significant research in the areas of fractionation, interactions of radiation therapy and chemotherapy, chemical sensitizers, radiation protectors, and biological response modifiers.
Pain Management
The Pain Management Program at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital collaborates with the pediatric oncology team to ensure that every child and adolescent with cancer is as comfortable as possible throughout treatment. Our pain management team addresses all types of acute and chronic pain, as well as the anxieties that are associated with pain, with both traditional and complementary medicine techniques.
Our anesthesiologists are skilled in methods for accurately assessing levels of pain, new approaches to pain treatment, and tools for documenting response to therapies to ensure pain relief. We provide care to both inpatients and outpatients.
Depending on the level of pain, children are treated with a stepped approach, beginning with a mild analgesic or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agent and moving to opioids as needed. Any adverse effects of pain medications, such as nausea, constipation, or severe itching, also are addressed. Children who are old enough may be prescribed a patient-controlled analgesia pump that allows them to have control over their pain treatment.
The Pain Management Program works closely with the psychiatry service to help children cope with the psychological effects of chronic pain, and with physical therapists, who help children overcome disability associated with pain.
Integrative Medicine
Our Integrative Medicine program was among the first in the country to incorporate complementary medicine with traditional therapies of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. Research has found that integrative therapies facilitate healing in patients undergoing cancer therapy, decrease the severity and incidence of side effects, alleviate stress and anxiety around treatment, improve sleep patterns, and diminish fatigue. Our goal is to heal not only our patients' bodies, but also their minds and spirits as well. Our program provides:
Clinical Care
Patients benefit from nutritional and herbal counseling (including food preparation with visiting chefs), aromatherapy, massage therapy, Reiki, yoga and movement, guided imagery, and acupressure. All services are provided at no cost to patients and their families. Our Cancer Survivor's Center provides comprehensive medical assessment and psychosocial evaluation for long-term survivors. The Center builds upon our integrative therapies program with an overall focus on wellness.
Education
Carol Ann's Library, located on site, offers more than 1,000 books, journals, audio and video materials, as well as computerized databases with Internet access. The Library disseminates information on complementary therapies to the parents of children with cancer and the healthcare professionals involved in their care. Additionally, the Integrative Therapies Program's website, www.integrativetherapiesprogram.org, is one of only three complementary alternative medicine websites listed on the National Cancer Institute's website and is the sole resource on complementary/alternative medicine of the Children's Oncology Group.
Research
Our healthcare team continues to conduct evidence-based research on the efficacy and safety of complementary alternative medicine in conjunction with traditional therapy. Present clinical trials include:
- electroacupuncture treatment for delayed nausea and vomiting
- milk thistle (a non-toxic herb) in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia to ameliorate liver toxicity associated with chemotherapy
- glutamine for associated peripheral neuropathy from treatment with vincristine anti-cancer drug
- the role of antioxidants in combination with chemotherapy
- the effect of aromatherapy in relieving anxiety and nausea in patients undergoing a bone marrow transplant
Contact
- Herbert Irving Child and Adolescent Oncology
- (212) 305-5808
