Hematology / Oncology
When a child or adolescent has cancer or a blood disorder, parents will do anything and go anywhere to get the best possible treatment.
Frequently, the family may feel that they need to travel great distances in order to obtain the best care. As pediatric cancer treatments have become more standardized, most physicians agree that the best place to go is an institution most convenient to the family.
The Valerie Fund Children’s Center at Stony Brook Children's, right here in Suffolk County, meets all of these criteria and more.
It offers the most up-to-date diagnostics and treatments for children with cancer. The program is led by Board Certified Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologists, backed by the full resources of a tertiary care hospital. It utilizes a comprehensive multidisciplinary family-centered approach that takes into account not just the medical needs, but all the issues that come into play during a long illness — flexible scheduling, 24-hour-visiting, family-centered decision-making, and the child's emotional and developmental stages.
The same is true for children with serious and chronic blood disorders such as hemophilia, von Willebrand’s disease, Sickle Cell Anemia, platelet disorders and thalassemia. Children receive multidisciplinary, state-of-the-art treatment in a child and family-centered environment — backed by a full complement of specialists including Child Life, Emergency Department, Social Work, Surgery and any additional specialties that the individual child may need.
In addition, whether for cancer or blood disorders, from the time of diagnosis forward, the focus is not just on achieving a "cure," but on maximizing the quality of life for the child beyond cure. For residents of Suffolk County, this translates into quality, personalized pediatric cancer care in their own backyards.
About The Valerie Fund Children’s Center
The Valerie Fund’s mission is to provide support for the comprehensive health care of children with cancer and blood disorders. We focus on patients and the families who love them. To truly heal a child, that child must be treated emotionally and medically. We also support the family and caregivers closest to the patient. We make local treatment possible for children with cancer and blood disorders.
In 1976, Valerie Goldstein’s parents Ed and Sue established The Valerie Fund in their nine-year-old daughter’s memory. Their desire was to bring the highest quality of care close to home in order to ease the burden on families. Today, there are eight Valerie Fund Children’s Centers that serve nearly 6,000 children each year in community and academic settings in New Jersey, New York City and Long Island, and metro Philadelphia.
Our Services
Our goal at Stony Brook Children's is for kids to be cured and to grow up to be healthy, well-adjusted, productive adults. That goal is the overriding foundation of our pediatric cancer care program. Thanks to medical innovations and new protocols, approximately 80 percent of kids with cancer will survive; children with the most common childhood cancer, acute lymphocytic leukemia, have a 90 percent cure rate.
Since the Pediatric Oncology Program started in 1991, the team has treated hundreds of children with malignant tumors. Our disease-specific cure rates remain at or above the national averages for major childhood cancers such as acute leukemia, brain tumors, lymphoma, neuroblastoma, Wilms tumors of the kidney, and bone and soft tissue sarcomas.
Annually, the hematology/oncology team sees approximately 2,000 inpatient and 5,000 outpatient encounters.
Stony Brook offers state-of-the-art diagnostic modalities including molecular diagnostics, and tissue-based and gene-based tests. All of our laboratories are fully accredited by the major accrediting organizations and our technologists are experienced and appropriately certified.
As a leading pediatric cancer program, and a full member of the Children's Oncology Group (COG), Stony Brook has access to the latest treatment protocols and modalities. Stony Brook can treat all common and most less common cancers in children, including brain tumors, leukemia, lymphomas, neuroblastomas, Wilms tumor, kidney cancer, and sarcomas of soft tissue, muscles and bone.
If a child comes to Stony Brook with a rare cancer, we have a worldwide network established and we can comfortably refer the family to the appropriate expert or center better equipped to treat the child.
Treatment may involve one or a combination of the following:
- Surgery: We use surgery as both a diagnostic and a treatment modality.
- Chemotherapy: Our chemotherapy protocols follow the guidelines of international children's cancer treatment organizations, including the standard-setting Children's Oncology Group (COG) and is customized for each child.
- Radiation: Our team works to deliver highly targeted radiation at the lowest possible doses that also limit exposure to normal tissue.
In addition to treating childhood cancers, Stony Brook offers advanced, comprehensive care for a wide range of blood disorders, some of which include:
- Sickle cell anemia
- Thalassemia
- Platelet diseases
- Bleeding disorders such as hemophilia and Von Willebrand's disease
Locations
Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
Health Sciences Tower 11th Floor, Room 060Stony Brook, NY 11794-8111
School Intervention and Re-Entry Program
Debra Guigliano, RN, MS, CPNP, CPONDivision of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
Health Sciences Tower 11th Floor, Room 060
Stony Brook, NY 11794-8111
Phone: (631) 444-7521
Fax: (631) 444-9230
Living in Love Palliative Care and Bereavement Program
Rina Meyer, MDRosemary Mahan, RN, MS, CPNP, CPON
Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
Health Sciences Tower 11th Floor, Room 060
Stony Brook, NY 11794-8111
Phone: (631) 444-7720
Fax: (631) 444-8968
Pediatric Oncology Survivorship Program
Laura Hogan, MDRosemary Mahan, RN, MS, CPNP, CPON
Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
Health Sciences Tower 11th Floor, Room 060
Stony Brook, NY 11794-8111
Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology Program
Laura Hogan, MDDivision of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
Health Sciences Tower 11th Floor, Room 060
Stony Brook, NY 11794-8111
Patient Resources
An important service for patients and their families is the School Re-Entry Program, offered to all school districts on Long Island free of charge. It has received both regional and national recognition for its excellence in helping children transition back to school. For more information about the program, call (631) 444-7521.
Play Fit, Stay Fit! Is a comprehensive wellness program for pediatric cancer survivors and their families, which meets twice a week for 12 weeks. One session is offered each fall and spring.
The program is open to child survivors of cancer and children with blood disorders between the ages of 4 and 18 and is free for the entire family. Participants engage in fun, group activities designed to improve endurance, strength, coordination, and overall confidence. For more information, call (631) 444-6169
This program was established to meet the needs of children diagnosed with life limiting cancer and their families. The focus is to promote comfort care while maximizing quality of life. Support is extended to the families during palliative care and continues throughout bereavement.
Living in Love's mission is to relieve or minimize the physical, emotional, and psychological pain and suffering of children diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses and their families through palliative, end-of-life and bereavement care. The program's interdisciplinary team members provide comprehensive, compassionate, and quality care that is sensitive to the cultural and spiritual diversity of the families.
In collaboration with Stony Brook University Athletics and school districts in the community, the pediatric hematology/oncology team provides a social program, Play It Forward, for pediatric patients while they are receiving treatment at the Cancer Center.
Student–athletes interact, read, play, and give the children their undivided attention on days when they are receiving treatment. These encounters help ease the burden of treatment for the children and their parents and provide the student-athletes with a strong sense of giving back.
These programs are held annually to celebrate the lives of our pediatric patients. This forum provides an opportunity to promote a sense of purpose, accomplishment, and self-confidence among these children. Siblings, who are also affected by the child’s illness, are recognized for their involvement. “Rising Stars” allows children to express themselves through theater and art.
Our Little Heroes is a parent support network that is open to all Suffolk County families, regardless of where they receive treatment.
All graduates of the Pediatric Oncology Program at Stony Brook Medicine who are pursuing post High School education or training are eligible to receive the Daniel Brooks Memorial Educational Award for Students with Cancer.
This Award was established in memory of Dan Brooks, who completed treatment for leukemia at Stony Brook and then obtained his degree in Special Education. Sadly, Dan’s life was cut tragically short in a motor vehicle accident. His spirit and dedication to education and children with cancer prevail through this program.
Because comfort and quality of life are so important to patients with cancer, particularly children, the department continually seeks ways to improve both. “Splashes of Hope,” colorful sea-themed murals, were recently installed in clinical exam rooms, chemotherapy infusion areas, and the waiting area to help the children relax.
This was funded by a grant from the Laurence W. Levine Foundation, which selected Stony Brook for the project, along with an additional grant secured by New York State Senator John Flanagan (R-East Northport).
In addition, Sunrise Day Camp, a day camp dedicated to children with cancer, started “Sunrise on Wheels” in which hospital volunteers bring a piece of the day camp experience to children in the Pediatric Hematology/ Oncology outpatient clinic while awaiting treatment.
Camp Adventure, a sleep-over camp sponsored by the American Cancer Society, is for children with cancer and their siblings. Typically, 30 to 40 percent of all children who attend this camp annually come from Stony Brook.
Several of the camp counselors are "graduates" of the Stony Brook program. Staff members are regular volunteers at the camp, including both RNs and NPs, who serve as medical support to ensure that all children continue to receive their medications during camp week. Dr. Robert Parker is the consulting oncologist for the camp and a regular on-site volunteer. In addition, Stony Brook Medicine is the facility identified for patient transport in the case of a serious illness or the need for more intensive diagnostic tests.
Research and Education
As an academic medical center, research is core to Stony Brook's mission because it helps to advance the practice of medicine and raises the standard of care in the community.
Pediatric cancer patients at Stony Brook have the advantage of access to a wide range of research and clinical studies, many of which are promising new treatments that one day may be the standard of care. All eligible patients are invited to participate in appropriate clinical trials, but there is no obligation that they do so.
Because it is so important to continue improving therapies and developing new treatments for cancer and blood disorders, ongoing research is a priority at the Department of Hematology/Oncology.
As a full member of the Children's Oncology Group, Stony Brook physicians have access to the most current cutting-edge cancer treatment clinical protocols that explore treatments to increase cure and reduce unwanted late effects of cancer treatment. We collaborate with other researchers at Stony Brook Cancer Center on research pertinent to childhood cancers, and adolescent and young adults (AYA) cancers.
In addition, we participate in a variety of clinical trials initiated by pharmaceutical companies. Ongoing institutional research currently focuses on obesity after cancer therapy, neurocognitive outcomes after cancer therapy, best practices in Pediatric Palliative Care, and mucositis/oral health in oncology patients.
By facilitating medical education, Stony Brook remains on the leading edge of medicine, continually invigorating its program with fresh viewpoints, a lively exchange of ideas and the region's next generation of top doctors. Currently both medical students and pediatric residents participate in rotations through the department.
Advances and Recognitions
All of the team's pediatric surgeons, radiation oncologists and pediatric oncologists are members of the prestigious Children's Oncology Group (COG). Each of the program's Nurse Practitioners and chemotherapy nurses are APHON (Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses) accredited.
All of the team's pediatric surgeons, pediatric pathologists, radiation oncologists and pediatric oncologists are members of the prestigious Children's Oncology Group (COG).
Each of the program's nurse practitioners and chemotherapy nurses are APHON (Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses) accredited. The nurse practitioners and School Intervention and Re-Entry team are members and leaders in APHOES (Association of Pediatric Hematology Oncology Educational Specialists).
Dr. Hogan is recognized as an expert in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). She is an active member of COG ALL committee, working to design and implement current and upcoming ALL clinical trials. Dr. Hogan is a past chair of the national CureSearch Survivorship Council.
