Nationally recognized doctors and nurses in the Division of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplant are dedicated to providing unsurpassed care for children and adolescents with cancer or blood-related diseases across Indiana and beyond. A leading source of research and discovery, this pediatric specialty team seeks new approaches to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of childhood cancer and blood disorders. All of the physicians in the clinical pediatric hematology/oncology team are faculty members at IU School of Medicine.
Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health services the entire state of Indiana as well as bordering regions of Michigan, Illinois, Ohio and Kentucky. With comprehensive interdisciplinary disease-focused teams, doctors and staff treat 75 percent of all new pediatric cancer diagnoses in Indiana and see an average of 250 new oncology patients each year, recording more than 13,000 outpatient visits per year focused on leukemias, solid tumors, brain tumors, hematopoietic/stem cell transplant, general hematology, sickle cell disease, bone marrow failure syndromes, hemophilia and other coagulation disorders. Riley Hospital for Children offers the only pediatric stem cell transplant program in the state of Indiana, treating 40-50 patients per year.
Clinical Research
IU School of Medicine Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplant faculty at the Riley Children’s Cancer Center are fully integrated as a comprehensive service line with a mission to be a world-class academic health care leader for children with cancer and blood disorders. Since 1924, Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health has been the only comprehensive children’s hospital in the State of Indiana, providing the most advanced care possible for pediatric patients.
Faculty pediatricians at this center offer the latest in treatment for all pediatric cancers as well as local access to a variety of investigational treatments under the Children’s Oncology Group, Indiana University School of Medicine investigator-initiated trials and the Pediatric Precision Genomics Program. The location of Riley Hospital on the IU School of Medicine Indianapolis campus provides a rich environment to enable translational researchers to stretch the limits of current scientific knowledge to promote improvements in child health on both national and international levels.
By integrating patient care and research, this faculty team aims to improve outcomes in children with cancer and blood disorders while working to continually provide the best care for all children. A longstanding member of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), the division provides the only local access to a variety of investigational treatments. COG, a National Cancer Institute-supported clinical trials group, is the world’s largest organization devoted exclusively to childhood and adolescent cancer research. Riley Hospital is consistently one of the top five COG centers for clinical trial enrollment.
The Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research is located in the interconnected state-of-the art research complex (R4) on the IU School of Medicine campus in Indianapolis. The Wells Center houses more than 200 faculty investigators, staff, and trainees who are seeking answers to the most pressing questions related to childhood illness. Research in the Wells Center spans virtually every pediatric subspecialty. Investigators in the Hematologic Malignancies and Stem Cell Biology research group focus on comparing molecular and cellular regulation of stem and progenitor cell populations in hematopoietic, endothelial and mesenchymal lineages using studies performed in humans, mice and other species. Stem cell biology in the context of development, homeostasis and leukemic transformation is examined to understand the genetic basis for normal lineage specification and maintenance.