Our invited International Speakers for 2010:

Dr John T Sandlund

Dr. John T. Sandlund, Jr. gained his medical degree from The Ohio State University and then completed his pediatric internship and residency training at the Columbus Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.  He completed his Pediatric Hematology/Oncology fellowship and biotechnology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD.

Upon completion of his fellowship training, Dr. Sandlund was recruited to a faculty position in the Department of Oncology at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital where he currently holds the position of Member.  He is also a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Memphis, TN. 

His research has focused on the hematopoietic malignancies of childhood, which primarily comprise the non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Dr. Sandlund currently serves on the NHL steering committee of the Children’s Oncology Group and is the Medical Director of the Leukemia-Lymphoma clinic at St Jude.

Dr Victor Blanchette

Dr. Victor Blanchette is Chief of the Division of Haematology/Oncology at the Hospital for Sick Children and Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto.  He is a Senior Associate Scientist in the Research Institute and a Clinician Investigator in the Department of Paediatrics.  Dr. Blanchette received his medical training at the University of Cambridge and St. Bartholomew's Hospital in the United Kingdom.  His post-graduate medical training included a paediatric residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the USA and a fellowship in paediatric haematology/oncology at McMaster University Medical Centre in Canada. Dr. Blanchette's research interests are in the area of the congenital and acquired bleeding disorders of children.  He is Director of the Pediatric Hemophilia and Thrombosis/Bleeding Disorders Programs at the Hospital for Sick Children and is Chairman of the Factor Prophylaxis Subcommittee of the Association of the Hemophilia Clinic Directors of Canada (AHCDC).  Dr. Blanchette is Chair of the Canadian Pediatric Thrombosis and Hemostasis Network (CPTHN) and of the International Prophylaxis Study Group (IPSG).  Dr. Blanchette is an elected fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of the United Kingdom.

Christina Rasco Baggott, RN, PhD, PNP-BC, CPON

Christina Baggott began her career in the mid-1980’s as a pediatric oncology nurse at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC and received her master’s degree from Emory University in 1990. She served as an advanced practice nurse at Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford for 15 years. She graduated from the doctoral program in nursing at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 2009. She joined the UCSF School of Nursing faculty in November of that year. Dr. Baggott’s program of research is focused on an evaluation of children’s symptom experiences during cancer treatment.

Dr. Baggott has been active in the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) for 15 years. Her roles within COG have been extensive and varied. Currently, she serves on a multidisciplinary subcommittee within COG to plan and conduct antiemetic research. In addition, Dr. Baggott served on an international research group to develop a pediatric mucositis assessment tool.

Dr. Baggott conducted a study entitled, Symptom Assessment with Patient Surveys which demonstrated the importance of patient reported outcomes in clinical research. Children (or their parents as proxy) reported a significantly higher number of symptoms when using a symptom checklist than was reported by clinicians in patients’ charts. In addition, clinician assessments at times contradicted patient self-reports (or parent proxy report) of symptoms.

Dr. Baggott has worked with Christine Miaskowski, RN, PhD to evaluate patterns of symptom characteristics during a cycle of chemotherapy as well as the relationships among patient’s functional status, symptom characteristics and quality of life. Future analyses planned for this data set include evaluation of: symptom clusters among children receiving chemotherapy, the degree of concordance between child and parent reports of symptoms and quality of life, and genetic analyses to search for a biological basis of the untoward effects of cancer treatment.

Dr. Baggott’s upcoming research projects include the evaluation of a computerized symptom assessment tool for young cancer patients and the development of a mobile phone application for symptom assessment in pediatric oncology.

Nancy F. Cincotta, MSW, MPhil, LCSW, ACSW,

Nancy Cincotta has been a social worker for over thirty years, having begun her professional career as a Child Life Specialist. As a clinician, manager, and educator, she has focused on the needs of families of children with cancer, related illnesses, and bereaved families.

"Ms. Cincotta is the Psychosocial Director of Camp Sunshine in Casco, Maine. Camp Sunshine is a nationally based retreat program for families of children with life-threatening illnesses and bereaved families. Ms. Cincotta is interested in demystifying the emotional journey faced by children with cancer and their families and exploring the burdens encountered by and resilience of professionals working in this area. Her current research centers on the role of hope in the lives of families with seriously ill children.

Ms. Cincotta is highly sought after for her skill in group work. Her expertise in this area has been cultivated over a distinguished career. She is internationally recognized and gifted in the art of group work and the development of small and large group work models.

Ms. Cincotta has published many articles, authored two childrens books and serves on two editorial boards. She is the recipient of numerous grants, with more than 350 presentations to her name and has held leadership roles in many national organizations. She is on faculty in the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine (Social Work and Behavioral Science) at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She earned Masters of Science and Philosophy degrees from the Columbia University School of Social Work."

Dr W. Hamish Wallace

I became a Leukaemia Research Fund Research Fellow under the guidance of Professor Steve Shalet in Manchester in the late 1980s when I developed my research interest in the late endocrine effects of the treatment of childhood cancer and completed my MD thesis. My main research interest is in fertility prediction and preservation for cancer patients. I am Chair of the CCLG Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Working Group (since 2002) and President of the European Network for Paediatric Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (since 2007).  I direct the HEBA Research Centre in Edinburgh which is committed to ongoing research into the effects of the treatment of childhood cancer on fertility, bone health and the vascular endothelium.  I am a co-author of over 110 peer reviewed publications, and four books. Most recently I co-edited with Prof Dan Green a multi-author book on “Late effects of the treatment of Childhood Cancer” and with Prof Chris Kelnar a book on  “Endocrine complications of the treatment of childhood cancer”. I am the co-founder and organiser for ESLCCC, a biannual conference on the late effects of the treatment of childhood cancer. I was appointed Lead Clinician for the Children’s and Young Peoples MCN for Cancer in Scotland “CATSCAN” in November 2007. most recently I have agreed to chair a SIGN guideline on the late complications of  the treatment of childhood cancer, which will build on the work of an earlier guideline SIGN 76, which I chaired and was published in 2004.

Debra Eshelman-Kent

Debra Eshelman-Kent, RN, MSN, CPNP, is an Advanced Practice Nurse who has worked in the late-effects arena for the past 16 years. She has published and presented on survivorship issues and worked on the original task force responsible for the development of the COG Late Effects Guidelines. She has co-authored a chapter dealing with care and policy issues confronting long term followup of cancer in adolescents and children. Her publications include research which has focused on obesity and tissue composite as well as analyses of abnormal blood count in long term survivors. She has presented numerous papers at international conferences on the issues facing children and adolescents with cancer. She has served in leadership positions in the Children’s Oncology Group and the Association of Pediatric Hematology/ Oncology Nurses. She is currently one of the Nurse Practitioners in the ATP Five Plus Long Term Cancer Survivor Clinic at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.