Columbia University Developmental Therapeutics Program: Striving for Excellence

Survival following chemotherapy for pediatric malignancy remains one of the most stunning successes of modern medicine. Nevertheless, there remains a subset of patients with aggressive disease for whom novel therapies are required.

The Pediatric Cancer Foundation Developmental Therapeutics Program (PCFDTP) at Columbia University (CU) is the only National Cancer Institute-sponsored Children's Oncology Group Phase I center serving the New York, Northern New Jersey and Connecticut tri-state region and a population in excess of 20 million. The PCFDTP also serves as the administrative home for Therapeutic Advances for Childhood Leukemia consortium trials, pharmaceutical industry studies and selective academic collaborations. Since its inception in August 2006, and due to early support from the Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF), the PCFDTP has seen an increase of nearly 50% in early phase trial patient accrual and an increase of more than 100% in outside referrals.

As we strive for excellence, it is an explicit goal of the PCFDTP to develop the independent capability to lead multicenter investigator-initiated industry-sponsored trials both scientifically and administratively. The PCFDTP will use the next 5 years of ALSF infrastructure funding to:

1. Expand the capacity of project coordination and data management to support a substantially increased developmental therapeutics trial portfolio and  accrual volume.

2. Translate the rich pipeline of basic and preclinical research ongoing at CU into evidence driven investigator-initiated trials with strong correlative biology.

3. Integrate Precision in Pediatric (PIPseq) comprehensive tumor profiling into standard practice for patient selection and recruitment to biologically targeted early phase trials.