Arkansas Children's mission to care for patients with childhood cancers and blood disorders includes embracing innovation in pursuit of better treatment options, especially when few exist. That may lead to more effective standard therapies for the children and grandchildren of today's patients. This ethos is evident throughout the childhood cancers and blood disorders program and Arkansas Children's Hospital's membership in several national clinical research consortia.
Arkansas Children's Hospital is home to an innovative cancer therapeutics program that focuses on providing access to early-phase clinical trials to patients with difficult-to-treat cancers. Typically, these patients have experienced relapse after treatment and have no curative options. One of the most significant partnerships for this program is with the Pediatric Oncology Experimental Therapeutics Investigators' Consortium (POETIC).
As part of POETIC, 10 member institutions in the U.S. and Canada participate in phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials studying therapies for various conditions, including neuroblastoma, sarcoma and pediatric malignant brain tumors. Many of the POETIC phase 1 trials in which Arkansas Children's Hospital has participated have led to phase 2 and phase 3 investigations, helping link diseases with novel treatments.
“We were part of the phase 1 trial for cobimetinib [a melanoma medication], and now we’re slated to have an institutional trial through the pharmaceutical company,” said Kevin Bielamowicz, M.D., pediatric hematologist and oncologist at Arkansas Children’s Hospital and assistant professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. “This trial will be housed exclusively at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. It’s a phase 2 trial attempting to treat a specific vascular anomaly. This is a great example of a medication for which we conducted a phase 1 trial, collected the safety data and provided that information to other researchers to help with other diseases.”
Membership in POETIC does more than offer hope to children and families — it also reduces the burden of treatment.
"What we've found is that if families can contribute to a study that helps their child, and it's unclear whether the optimal study is available at Arkansas Children's Hospital or elsewhere, they choose to stay close to home at our center," Dr. Bielamowicz said. "It's beneficial to be able to offer a strong group of studies for most incurable cancers that answer scientific questions for patients and the field, all while allowing patients to remain close to their community."
Arkansas Children's Hospital has a robust portfolio of research partnerships that, in addition to POETIC, includes membership in the Beat Childhood Cancer Research Consortium and the Children's Oncology Group. Researchers also participate in industry-supported studies outside the consortium framework on studies that focus primarily on immunotherapies and neurofibromatosis. This diversity of investigations allows Arkansas Children's Hospital researchers to pursue various exciting therapeutic avenues.
"We're studying immune checkpoint inhibitors, as well as precision medicine that matches a particular tumor mutation to a drug targeting it," Dr. Bielamowicz said. "We're also investigating repurposing certain medications, such as antiparasitic medications, to treat cancer."
These efforts and others help Arkansas Children’s Hospital build the future of childhood cancer care from the ground up.
"We're part of groups on the ground level of leadership in executing clinical trials, helping to advance the field and finding cures for difficult-to-treat cancers," Dr. Bielamowicz said. "At the same time, we're giving our patients access to novel treatments without their needing to travel far from home."
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