The Vanderbilt Childhood Cancer program is a part of both the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt and the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center each of which were recognized for their excellence in the most recent U.S. News & World Report rankings [1, 2].

The Vanderbilt Pediatric Oncology program has joined with other institutions with strong developmental therapeutics programs to participate in three consortia conducting early phase clinical trials for childhood cancer patients -- the Pediatric Oncology Experimental Therapeutics Investigators' Consortium (POETIC), Therapeutic Advances against Childhood Leukemia (TACL), and the Sarcoma Alliance for Research Through Collaboration (SARC).

Since July 1, 2007, a total of 54 COG, POETIC or other therapeutic clinical trials were opened or maintained (of a total of 78 clinical research studies), and 241 accruals were made to COG, POETIC or other clinical trials, including 59 accruals to therapeutic trials; of these 9 accruals were to early phase or pilot clinical trials. VCH and other members of POETIC have successfully completed and presented the results of 3 phase I trials which were proposed in our previously funded 2006 application; one manuscript has been published, a second manuscript submitted for review and a third manuscript is in preparation. Thirteen additional early-phase pediatric clinical trials through POETIC, TACL, SARC and COG are currently open or are being processed for regulatory approvals at Vanderbilt.