Tests and treatments for childhood cancer

Our doctors use the latest technology to diagnose childhood cancer, for timely answers about what’s affecting your child. We also provide effective treatment, with both proven pediatric cancer therapies and access to clinical trials.

Throughout your care at Advocate Children’s Hospital, your family receives all the support you need, in a warm and comforting environment. Familiar faces help you all along the way.

Our approach to childhood cancer diagnosis and treatment

Our pediatric cancer team includes top pediatric radiologists, surgeons, and oncologists, as well as pathologists working behind the scenes to make a thorough diagnosis. Team members follow the latest cancer guidelines and take the time to discuss the risks and benefits of each option with you. A pediatric oncologist oversees your child’s care and works closely with other cancer specialists.

By choosing Advocate Children’s, your family benefits from:

• Thorough evaluation: We use the latest cancer tests to provide a detailed diagnosis, while minimizing side effects. Testing often continues through treatment, as we determine if cancer has responded to therapy. We talk through the options with your family and help reduce your child’s anxiety. Learn more about our diagnostic tests and imaging.
• Consideration for your needs: Our cancer team works closely with you from the start. Your social worker guides you throughout care, making sure you see the right specialists at each stage.
• Second opinions: We want your child to have the most accurate diagnosis and most effective treatment recommendations. We don’t hesitate to send you for a second opinion if there’s any doubt, or you just want peace of mind. It’s about you, not us.

Pediatric cancer treatments most often used at Advocate Children’s Hospital

Once we have a diagnosis, we work with your family to develop a treatment plan tailored to your child. We base our recommendations on your child’s specific diagnosis and overall health, as well as the expected side effects of therapy. Most treatment takes place at our Park Ridge or Oak Lawn cancer centers, avoiding the need to drive into the city. Additional therapy takes place nearby.

In addition to established treatments, our doctors research promising new therapies. We provide access to clinical trials, including trials overseen by the Children’s Oncology Group and the Beat Childhood Cancer research consortium. We make sure your child has options.

We may recommend one type of cancer treatment for your child, or a combination of several. Common approaches for many of the cancers we treat include:

• Chemotherapy: Drugs destroy any fast-growing cells they come across, typically traveling throughout the body via the bloodstream to do their work. Sometimes we recommend higher chemotherapy doses, taking out blood-forming stem cells before treatment and then putting them back in. Learn more about chemotherapy for childhood cancer.
• Radiation therapy and proton therapy: The high-energy particles in radiation therapy destroy cancerous cells in targeted areas of the body. For children, we typically deliver the radiation from an external machine. A newer form of external radiation treatment, proton therapy, offers even greater precision and fewer side effects for certain cancers.
• Surgery: Doctors remove tumors, or parts of tumors, using traditional open surgery or a newer, minimally invasive approach. Learn more about pediatric cancer surgery.

Additional ways to treat childhood cancer

Chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery can successfully treat the majority of pediatric cancers. Still, we offer additional pediatric cancer treatments to provide the options your child needs. Some treat particular cancer types, while others can help if cancer spreads, returns or resists treatment.

These therapies include:

• Transfusion: We use an intravenous (IV) line to supply more blood cells.
• Apheresis: We use an intravenous (IV) line to remove blood cells causing problems or for stem cell therapies. We may use apheresis while treating leukemia, lymphoma, and certain types of solid tumors.
• Cryotherapy and laser therapy: When treating retinoblastoma, we may recommend cryotherapy or laser therapy to destroy cancerous cells. Cryotherapy uses certain gases to freeze cells, while laser therapy heats up the cells.
• Immunotherapy: Newer drugs harness the body’s immune system against cancer, with the intention of causing fewer side effects. Approved immunotherapy for children treats certain forms of blood cancer and skin cancer, with other drugs in development.
• Targeted therapy: Some newer medications target specific changes in cancer cells, or the processes they use to grow. We use the drugs by themselves, or with chemotherapy. Approved targeted therapies treat certain types of leukemia and neuroblastoma, with others in clinical trials.

Support for your child and family

We recognize that your child’s cancer treatment is a journey for the whole family. Our care team provides support that includes:

• Resources to help you and your family learn about and cope with treatment
  • Child Life Therapy
  • Art Therapy
  • Music Therapy
  • Occupational Therapy
  • Physical Therapy
  • Speech Therapy
  • Nutritionist
  • Child Psychologists and LCSWs
  • Social workers
• School coordination to work with your child and their school during and after treatment
• Sibling support group to give brothers and sisters the support they need

Our unique Pediatric Oncology Survivors in Transition (P.O.S.T.) program also helps children celebrate their cure while transitioning into life after cancer. Support includes tracking needed follow-up care and watching for late side effects.