Cancer and Blood Diseases Center

Key achievements

Dana-Farber/Children’s Hospital Cancer Center's pediatric cancer and blood disease experts are internationally known for their scientific discoveries and new treatment approaches.

Here are some highlights of our team’s accomplishments:

• the first successful remission of childhood leukemia by Sidney Farber, MD, in 1947
   
• introduction of multiple-agent treatment (combination chemotherapy) for leukemia in 1972. With successful improvements, we attained childhood leukemia cure rates of 80 percent or more.
   
• leadership in developing the first effective chemotherapy for acute myelogenous leukemia (AML)
   
• leadership in developing a new drug called defibrotide as a promising new treatment for hepatic veno-occlusive disease, a major complication following stem cell transplantation
   
• leadership in developing national standards of care for pediatric cancer survivors and pediatric palliative care
   
• the first published experience with double autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplant for high-risk neuroblastoma
   
• leadership in clinical trials for Ewing sarcoma; five-year event-free survival rates now at about 70 percent
   
• initiation of the first antiangiogenic treatment trials for pediatric brain tumors
   
• the first pediatric hospital installation of a mobile “intraoperative MRI,” which allows surgeons to obtain images while the patient is still under anesthesia and to perform further procedures as needed
   
• leadership in advancing survival rates for hard-to-treat tumors like medulloblastoma and atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor (ATRT)
   
• stewardship of the development of gene therapy as a treatment for cancers and blood disorders, including the first federal approval of a gene therapy trial for x-linked SCID, a life-threatening immunodeficiency, Wiscott-Aldrich disease and adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD)
   
• trials in Fanconi anemia and dyskeritosis congenita—rare, life-threatening genetic blood diseases
   
• Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Center have consistently earned top honors in their categories in U.S. News & World Report.
   
• Both institutions have been honored for nursing excellence as Magnet hospitals by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.