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RESEARCH
PERIODICAL
USC-CHLA Institute for Pediatric Clinical Research
The road from initial hope to clinical application can be long for new anti-cancer drugs.
Founded in late 2003, the vision of the USC-CHLA Institute for Pediatric Clinical Research (IPCR) is to be a global leader in the conduct of clinical research for the prevention and cure of catastrophic illness in children with its mission dedicated to ending the suffering of children due to serious and life-threatening diseases. The objective of the IPCR is to facilitate and expedite the development, pre-clinical characterization and human testing of novel therapies for childhood diseases, initially focusing on cancer. The IPCR currently has over three dozen faculty, physicians, scientists, technicians and staff from the CHLA Division of Hematology-Oncology working together to accomplish its mission. IPCR investigators will identify a pipeline of drugs in collaboration with international pharmaceutical companies ranging in development from early laboratory testing to clinical trials. It is the goal of the IPCR to generate a number of clinical trials testing new drugs, and novel combinations of drugs for children with cancer. The expectation is that by focusing clinical trials on drugs (or drug combinations) that have passed careful laboratory testing, a higher percentage of those drugs will show clinical benefit in pediatric patients. Developmental Therapeutics ProgramThe Developmental Therapeutics Program (DTP) focuses on the development of new laboratory models of childhood cancers and using those models to test new drugs and new drug combinations. The DTP focuses on developing drugs to treat two common cancers of childhood, acute leukemia and neuroblastoma, a non-brain nervous system cancer. Molecular Targets ProgramOver the last year a new research component has been added to IPCR with the Molecular Targets Program under the direction of Markus Müschen, M.D. This exciting program is researching the cellular pathways thought to be involved in childhood leukemia to define the role of these pathways in disease and to discover novel therapeutic agents that may interfere with those pathways and ultimately improve clinical outcomes in these patients. Therapeutic Advances in Childhood Leukemia (TACL)IPCR also includes the international clinical study consortium, Therapeutic Advances in Childhood Leukemia (TACL) consortium, consisting of sixteen pediatric cancer centers across North and South America that carry out initial clinical trials of new drugs and new drug combinations in childhood leukemia. Drugs that prove promising in early TACL-managed clinical trials will be brought to the attention of the national cooperative group for childhood cancer, the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), and IPCR investigators will work closely with the COG to design and carry out the large, nationwide trials needed to determine the ultimate value of the new drug (or drug combination) in treating a given childhood cancer. |