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UTHSCSA

Through cancer care and research,

UT Health San Antonio serves South

Texas’ most seriously ill children

By William L. Henrich, M.D., MACP, President and Professor of Medicine
UT Health San Antonio

I would like to take
this opportunity to share About 15,000 U.S.
with you some examples
of important and life- children and adolescents
changing work being un- under age 20 are
dertaken by the expert diagnosed with cancer
pediatric cancer physi- annually. Five-year
cians and researchers of survival for all childhood
The University of Texas
Health Science Center at cancers has increased to
San Antonio, also greater than 80 percent,
known as UT Health but for some tumors, such
San Antonio. All of as those of the brain and
these efforts take place bone, five-year survival
in the Joe R. and Teresa
Lozano Long School of remains below 75 percent.
Medicine, which is led
by Robert A. Hromas,
M.D., professor and
dean.
Guided by the goal of
improving the lives of
children with cancer, both for today and tomorrow, we remain com- One of the medications recently studied by the group was an im-
mitted to continuously advancing the care that is provided to chil- munotherapy drug called atezolizumab, which was used to treat for-
dren battling cancer. Comprehensive clinical care is accomplished mer President Jimmy Carter’s melanoma. UT Health San Antonio
through the South Texas Pediatric Blood Disorders and Cancer is one of 10 consortium partners in the U.S. and Canada providing
Center, which is offered in partnership with University Health Sys- such trials through the Pediatric Oncology Experimental Therapeu-
tem. Our clinical team is led by Gail Tomlinson, M.D., Ph.D., of tic Investigators’ Consortium (POETIC). Anne-Marie Langevin,
the Department of Pediatrics/Division of Hematology-Oncology M.D., of the pediatric hematology-oncology faculty, leads these and
and the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute. The team is other clinical trials.
refining treatment options based on what we learn from Phase I tri- Care of children with cancer does not stop when treatment ends,
als about young patients whose cancers aren’t responding to other as more than 75 percent of survivors will experience at least one
forms of treatment. Team members are ever mindful of the psy- chronic health condition related to previous treatments, and up to
chosocial aspects of a cancer diagnosis, as well. Emphasis also is one-third are afflicted with a life-threatening condition. Gregory J.
placed on counseling families who may have genetic factors that Aune, M.D., Ph.D., is a 27-year survivor of childhood Hodgkin’s
could indicate future risk of cancer within the family. lymphoma. Dr. Aune, of the Greehey Institute and pediatric hema-
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24 San Antonio Medicine • February 2019