Recently, Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital at Hackensack University Medical Center was selected to join the Pacific Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Consortium (PNOC), the premiere research group for pediatric brain tumors. We are extremely proud to join other leading institutions – such as the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Dana-Farber, Johns Hopkins and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital- in our effort to treat and care for pediatric brain tumor patients.
PNOC was formed to explore and develop clinical approaches based on the molecular and genetic make-up of individual tumors and provide children with brain tumors access to pioneering treatments. PNOC tests therapies aimed at interfering with specific cellular pathways or mutations after confirming that a patient’s tumor has those characteristics, sparing patients therapy that is not optimized for their tumor type.
Our participation as a PNOC hospital site is a tremendous boost for Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital and our Children’s Cancer Institute. It will allow us to triple the amount of brain tumor trials we offer and provide the most cutting-edge treatments to our patients. Patients will no longer have to leave the state to seek treatment, as we will be able to offer the latest clinical trials to our patients later this year.
Our affiliation with PNOC, in addition to the creation of a new research lab dedicated to pediatric neuro-oncology at ourCenter for Discovery and Innovation, will put us on the trajectory to discover even more innovations and potential breakthroughs.
Our supporters’ investment in our research and exceptional care helped us reach this significant milestone.
“This is a very important recognition of the work done by the Hackensack Meridian Children’s Health pediatric cancer sub-speciality teams,” said Judy Aschner, M.D., physician-in-chief, Hackensack Meridian Children’s Health. “It will ensure that we not only remain a force in innovative neuro-oncology research in New Jersey, but that we become collaborators on a global level with other hospitals throughout the country and world in advancing the PNOC goal of developing new therapies for children and young adults with brain tumors.”