The Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology,led by Dr. Patricia Giardina, endeavors to care for children and their families afflicted with blood disorders and cancer.

CLINICAL PROGRAMS
Dr. Alexander Aledo is Director of Cornell's Pediatric Oncology Program which diagnoses and treats infants, children, adolescents and young adults with leukemia, sarcomas and other childhood cancers. Dr. Aledo is also the hematology/oncology consultant at the New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens (formerly Booth Memorial Hospital). He conducts a Pediatric Hematology clinic at the Theresa Lang Children's Ambulatory Center in Flushing, (718) 670-1800. In 2002, Dr Aledo received the Creative Spirit Award of the Creative Center for Women with Cancer.

Dr. James Bussel continues his work on disorders associated with low platelet counts and has participated in the development of national guidelines for the management of ITP.

Dr. Donna DiMichele is directing the Comprehensive Hemophilia and Diagnostic Treatment Center.  She is expanding the center with the development of an isotopic synovectomy, the first of its kind in the area, and Pediatric Dental and Psychiatric Hemophilia Consultative Services.

Dr. Patricia Giardina continues to direct the Thalassemia Program, the largest Thalassemia Comprehensive Care and Psychosocial Support Center of its kind in the United States.  In December 1998, she was awarded the DeWitt-Clinton Award for community service.  National guidelines for the Management of Thalassemia are in their final stages of development by the Thalassemia Committee of the Council of Regional Genetics Networks which she chairs.

Dr. Katherine Hajjar directs our Sickle Cell Program, which provides comprehensive care, newborn screening, genetic counseling and education to patients and their families.  The sickle cell disease can now be cured with bone marrow transplant (BMT), and two children have successfully undergone BMT during the past two years.

Dr. Margaret Hilgartner is currently President of the Childrenâs Blood Foundation and has also provided consultative services for bleeding disorders of childhood.  She remains an active mentor in clinical hemophilia care, and continues to lecture and publish on her clinical research expertise in hemophilia.

RESEARCH PROGRAMS
We have had an increase in ongoing and new clinical and basic research investigations.  Our research funding has increased and is supported in part by the National Institute of Health, Maternal Child Health, the American Cancer Society, industry, and  the Childrenâs Blood Foundation.

We are grateful for the support of the Childrenâs Blood Foundation (CBF), which has contributed in numerous ways to our research, educational, and clinical programs as well as to the College.

Research Highlights:

Dr. Alexander Aledo's interests include the supportive care of children and adolescents with cancer. He is a member of the study committee for the Children's Oncology Group clinical research trial AALL0031 : "A COG Pilot Study for the Treatment of Very High Risk Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in Children and Adolescents."

Dr. Susanna Cunningham-Rundles continues to study immune deregulation, in addition to the effects of AIDS and its effect on the immune development of the newborn and child.  She has made the seminal discovery that children congenitally exposed to HIV have a marked Vitamin Adeficiency.

Dr. Donna DiMichele is working on the research and development of new assays required for the diagnosis and management of bleeding disorders, and has conducted or participated in eighteen clinical research protocols and drug trials designed to provide hemophiliac patients with safer and more efficacious treatment regimens and to induce immune tolerance in children who have developed inhibitors to the life saving factor infusions.  She has recently been awarded a grant from the American Cancer Society to conduct a multicenter trial on the altered coagulation in pediatric stem cell transplant recipients.

Drs. Robert Grady and Patricia Giardina continue their collaboration on the development of new orally effective compounds which can promote iron excretion in iron overloaded thalassemia patients.  The accumulation of iron in tissues remains a major cause of morbidity in patients with congenital hemoglobinopathies that require frequent blood transfusions.  The cornerstone of successful iron chelation therapy in these patients has been desferrioxamine (DFO).  DFO is effective only when administered subcutaneously.  This route of administration has been a major reason for noncompliance among children and adolescents requiring this therapy.  This issue is currently being addressed by developing agents that can be given by mouth that have similar safety and efficacy profiles to DFO.

Dr. Katherine Hajjar is Chief of the Molecular Hematology Research Laboratory.  Her work continues on the definition of the role of Annexin II in thrombosis and bleeding disorders.  In July 1997 the Dean awarded Dr. Hajjar with the Stavros Niarchos Chair of Pediatric Cardiology in recognition for educational contributions to the medical college and her outstanding research regarding the molecular mechanisms of thrombosis.

Dr. Ursula Muller-Eberhard, Professor Emeritus, has been completing her manuscript publications on the novel regulatory element heme oxygenase and HBP23 which controlls expression of hemopexin, a substance that detoxifies heme (a red blood breakdown product) and which can facilitate destruction of tissue proteins and lipids.  She is participating in the research activities of her students abroad and has spent a significant amount of time in Kiev to supervise clinical research on post radiation injuries in the children of Chernobyl.

EDUCATION
Our combined educational fellowship program with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center continues to attract excellent applicants and produce well-trained clinicians and researchers.  Our second year fellows participate in recognized research laboratories either at Cornell, Rockefeller University, and the New York Blood Center or at Memorial Sloan Kettering.

CONTACT
For more information or to schedule an appointment, please call us at:  (212) 746-3400