Every September, Childhood Cancer Awareness Month calls attention to children and families facing diagnoses that can change their lives in an instant.
For families confronting childhood cancer, access to highly specialized care close to home matters. Traveling out of state for treatment can mean leaving behind jobs, schools, extended family and trusted support systems when they are needed most.
Last year, the state invested $30 million through the Cancer Connect Collaborative Research Incubator to support pediatric cancer programs at Florida’s four specialty children’s hospitals: Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, Nemours Children’s Hospital, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital and Wolfson Children’s Hospital. The funding will help expand clinical trials, strengthen treatment and accelerate research into new cures.
That investment recognized an important truth: Children are not small adults, and world-class pediatric cancer care is not simply adult cancer care delivered to smaller patients. It requires an entire system designed around children — from specialized physicians and nurses to pediatric research, clinical trials, advanced technology, supportive services and expertise across the full continuum of care.
Together, Florida’s specialty children’s hospitals care for children from all 67 counties, including many with complex cancers and rare tumors. They account for 43% of pediatric cancer and hematology inpatient hospitalizations statewide, and 75% of Florida’s pediatric population lives within 30 minutes of one of their facilities.
Across the four hospitals, work is underway to recruit recognized specialists, expand access to clinical trials and advanced treatments, strengthen research capabilities and develop the facilities and multidisciplinary teams comprehensive pediatric cancer care requires.
Nicklaus Children’s recently broke ground on a new home for its cancer and blood disorders institute and was recognized among the nation’s Top 50 children’s hospitals for pediatric cancer.
At Johns Hopkins All Children’s, the story of Valentina, a young patient with acute myeloid leukemia, illustrates what these capabilities can mean for a family. Advanced genetic testing helped her care team better understand her disease and guide a treatment plan that included a bone marrow transplant.
Nemours Children’s Hospital, Florida named Dr. David Dickens, a leukemia and lymphoma specialist with experience leading multi-institutional clinical research and trials, as chief of hematology/oncology to help expand its pediatric cancer program.
At Wolfson Children’s, the first year of funding supported 10 key hires across clinical care, nutrition, quality and infection prevention, while adding six clinical trials and enrolling 83 patients in clinical trials.
These advances represent progress, but they are only the beginning.
Through the Pediatric Cancer Alliance, the four hospitals are working toward a shared statewide vision: world-class pediatric cancer care, designed for children and delivered here in Florida.
The Alliance provides a framework for the hospitals to share expertise and build complementary programs that expand access, accelerate research and attract top pediatric cancer specialists. This coordinated approach, supported by the state’s investment, provides Florida with a path to develop nationally recognized pediatric cancer programs and reduce the number of families who must travel far from home during one of the most difficult times of their lives.
This Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, we celebrate the children and families who inspire this work and what Florida can accomplish when state leaders and specialty children’s hospitals unite to ensure families can access world-class pediatric cancer care close to home.
