Pediatric Hematology/Oncology

Each year, roughly 35 children at Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida are diagnosed with cancer for the first time. Dr. Kelly Sawczyn, a pediatric oncologist with Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida, says lymphoma is one of the most common childhood cancers. “Lymphoma is a cancer of the lymph node.” It can develop anywhere in the body. It’s an aggressive cancer for children, but doctors say that’s actually a good thing. “When I say aggressive, I mean that they grow quickly but they are also treatable. So these are not things that the symptoms are lasting a year, these are things that a month ago it started and now it’s really getting worse,” said Dr. Sawczyn. Aggressive cancers receive aggressive treatments, and because lymphoma grows quickly, it’s usually noticed quickly and treated quickly. Studies show 80 percent of children walk away as success stories. “Fortunately, with lymphoma for the most part it doesn’t matter if you’re diagnosed today, two weeks from now, or a month from now, you’re likelihood of being cured is going to be the same,” said Dr. Sawczyn. Depending on the type of lymphoma children are usually treated with chemotherapy or radiation. The treatment can last three months or as long as two years. “It depends on the type, of which there are several, but the bottom line is that of those several types that we treat they are almost all curable. We have an excellent success rate with all cancers so 80 percent of all children diagnosed with cancer are going to be cured, and when we say cured we don’t mean just five years, we mean a lifetime,” said Dr. Sawczyn. While the cause of childhood cancers are unclear, doctors say they are optimistic that the treatments are helping children beat cancer.

Each year an estimated 70,000 adolescents and young adults are diagnosed with cancer. “It is really, really important to serve these patients because it affects their survival,” said Dr. April Depombo, a pediatrician hematology-oncology physician with Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida. The startling statistics are why Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida recently joined an initiative to help patients diagnosed with cancer between the ages of 15 and 29. “The AYA is the adolescent young adult program. It’s an initiative that was started many years ago. We are the only AYA program in the area, and we are the only one in a children’s hospital in Southwest Florida entirely,” explained Dr. Depombo. Studies show AYA patients are better served in pediatric settings. “It’s this in-between age group that kind of falls through the cracks usually, because they are not young children and they are not older adults, and they also have some very special needs,” she said. The AYA program caters to the patient’s cancer care, enrolls them in clinical trials, provides them with psychosocial support, and offers options to preserve their fertility. “We talk about sperm banking; we talk about egg and ovarian tissue cryopreservation. The procedures that they would go through and what it looks like to have their fertility preserved,” Dr. Depombo said. Patients who qualify for clinical trials can participate through Golisano Children’s Hospital. “Enrolling patients on clinical trials is really, really important. Studies have shown, patients 15 to 19 there’s only about 10 percent enrollment rate and ages 20 to 39 there’s only about one percent of patients enroll,” she said. The program helps patients adjust to life with cancer treatment. “This is a really big change going through a cancer diagnosis, and these patients are kind of in that in-between period. They are trying to go to school, maybe they have young families, maybe they just started their first job, maybe they’re in college, so this is a really large change,” Dr. Depombo said.