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Chasing Away Childhood Cancer

Riley’s Chase For A Cure

Riley Hospital for Children has recently launched a program concentrating on children whose cancer has either returned, is resistant to traditional chemo, or is so aggressive that standard treatment will not work.  In an interview with WishTV.Com, an Indianapolis news site, this pediatric hospital explains how it aims to use Precision Genomics, defined as a highly personalized type of care commonly used for adults, to treat its cancer patients. By being one of a few hospitals, if not the only to utilize this method, Riley is steadily gaining a reputation as being the future home of Precision Genomics children’s cancer treatment.

Riley doctors explain that through the testing implemented in this program, they have gathered enough information that helped fight tumors in 70% of patients thus far. Riley’s Dr. Jamie Renbarger states “Every patient in the program becomes a research subject…not only to the therapy that we give that child, but to other therapies that we considered. To really allow us to make better and better decisions for each patient as we move forward. So we learn not only from what happens to them clinically but from a whole menu of treatment options that we try in the lab.”

As of today, all 40 patients within this program are from Indiana, but Dr. Renbarger expresses an interest in expansion. Renbarger states that “Given the uniqueness of this program, I do expect that there will be demand and we’ll begin to see patients outside of Indiana. We’ve actually made a decision early on to not widely market the program so that we could be sure our processes were working well before we had a larger influx of patients. So we’re at a point where I think we’re ready to begin to announce the fact that we have this program and open our doors to outside the state as well.”

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