Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Program

Our nationally renowned physicians provide compassionate, personalized, research-based care for children, adolescents and young adults in a warm and welcoming environment. With locations across the state, children with cancer and blood disorders have access to the most advanced treatment options including clinical trials, sophisticated radiation therapy procedures, cellular therapies, and stem cell transplantation close to home.

As New Jersey’s only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, Rutgers Cancer Institute together with RWJBarnabas Health provides access to the full spectrum of therapeutic procedures and advanced treatment options including precision medicine, clinical trials, immunotherapy, and cellular therapies, many of which are only available at NCI-designated Cancer Centers.

New Jersey Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Research Center of Excellence (NJPHORCE)

Translation of our findings from “bench to bedside” is facilitated by having both research and clinical care delivered by faculty in the same program. NJPHORCE at Rutgers Cancer Institute was established and funded by the State of New Jersey with the objective of improving the lives of children with these diagnoses through research.

Pediatric Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapies Program

Our program offers cell-based treatments like gene therapy, immunotherapy, and CAR T-⁠cell therapy, and is one of the only programs in the state of New Jersey that utilizes stem cell transplants in the treatment of benign diseases in children such as sickle cell disease, thalassemia, immune system disorders, bone marrow failure disorders and inherited metabolic disorders.

The lite Program for Childhood Cancer Survivors

The lite Program at Rutgers Cancer Institute, provides long-term evaluation, support, and health education for the growing population of childhood cancer survivors. The successes in the treatment of childhood cancer have led to increasing survival rates.

Clinicians in our Program care for children, adolescents and young adults with the full array of blood disorders or cancer, including the following:

• acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)
• acute myelogenous leukemia (AML)
• anemia
• aplastic anemia
• bleeding disorders
• bone cancer
• brain tumors
• breast cancer
• cancer predisposition syndromes
• chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML)
• clotting disorders
• Ewing sarcomas
• genetic counselling
• Germ cell tumors
• hemophilia
• hepatoblastoma
• histiocytosis
• Hodgkin lymphoma
• idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura
• immune thrombocytopenia purpura
• iron deficiency anemia
• leukemia
• lymphoma
• macrocytosis
• melanoma
• myelodysplastic syndromes
• neuroblastoma
• neurofibromatosis
• neutropenia
• non-Hodgkin lymphoma
• osteosarcoma
• other solid tumors
• ovarian cancer
• renal tumors
• retinoblastoma
• rhabdomyosarcoma
• sickle cell anemia
• soft tissue sarcoma
• testicular cancer
• thalassemia
• thrombocytopenia
• thrombocytosis
• vascular anomalies
• Wilms tumor

Specialists from the Pediatric Cancer Center at Rutgers Cancer Institute work with experts to provide care at the following RWJBarnabas Health facilities:

Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital

at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick

Under the direction of Peter Cole, MD, Chief, Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology

The Valerie Fund Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders

at The Children’s Hospital of New Jersey at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center

Under the direction of Teena Bhatla, MD, Director, Pediatric Hematology/ Oncology

Valerie Fund Children’s Cancer Center

at Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch