Houston hospitals unite to fight childhood cancer From the cover
MD Anderson Cancer Center The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is a comprehensive cancer center in Houston and is considered the largest of its kind in the world.
The big picture
Texas Children’s and MD Anderson first announced their partnership in early February, stating the new collaboration is designed to: • Expand care access for patients • Combine pediatric subspecialty care and children’s cancer services to children under one program • Grow pediatric cancer clinical trials • Utilize more than 300 pediatric specialists from Baylor College of Medicine and MD Anderson • Provide pediatric oncology education programs to train additional professionals Dr. Donald Williams Parsons, the interim director of the Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Center in Houston, said the new facility will house children with cancer and allow staff to give their undivided attention to those patients. “It’s what makes the most sense for our patients and their families,” Parsons said. “It’s an interesting opportunity for us to bring all of our minds and resources together to maximize strategy for our patients.” MD Anderson and Texas Children’s officials said more details were not available at press time, including the specific number of beds, the project timeline or the total cost of the project.
187,000 patients served in 2024
760 inpatient beds
$1.3B invested in research last year
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COURTESY MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER
Texas Children’s Hospital Texas Children’s Hospital is a pediatric and women’s health care organization that focuses on inpatient care, education and research.
4.9 million annual patient encounters
7,000 births take place annually
2,000 medical professionals
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SOURCES: TEXAS CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL, MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER/COMMUNITY IMPACT
COURTESY TEXAS CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
Zooming in
Some context
Another focus of the joint venture will be research, which will prioritize generating more cures for cancer by accelerating drug development and clinical trial programs to address unmet needs for children. Dr. Richard Gorlick, the division head of pediatrics at MD Anderson, said that with both institutions dedicated to one center, he believes researchers will be able to do more together by focusing on the problem as a unit. “A goal to end childhood cancer—that’s a bold one,” Gorlick said. “That’s going to take all of us working together harmoniously.” Parsons said he’s currently researching survivor- ship, and what challenges and side effects patients have after their battles against childhood cancer. He also researches drug development, cell therapy and precision medicine. Meanwhile, Gorlick said he researches bone cancer and identifies new therapies for the disease. Both researchers will continue their studies and trials at the new center.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Texas is a young state,” Gorlick said. “If you compare our state to many others, there are more young folks. Young folks are the most likely to have children, so there tend to be more children. This means there’s a huge population of patients who need our services.”
Gorlick said he believes the Kinder Center is important to have in Texas because of how many young people there are in the state. Texas had the second most childhood cancer cases nationwide from 2017-21, with an annual average case count of 1,081, accord- ing to State Cancer Profiles, a collaboration between the National Cancer Institute and the
Annual average pediatric cancer cases by state, 2017-21
1,195
1,081
642
618
402
394
362
341
California
Texas
New York
Florida
Illinois
Pennsylvania Ohio Georgia
SOURCE: STATE CANCER PROFILES/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM
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