Leukemia and Lymphoma

If your child has leukemia or lymphoma, you want them to have access to the latest treatments, delivered by experts who understand every aspect of their condition. At Atrium Health Levine Children’s, our pediatric oncologists work together to understand your child’s unique health issues and match them with treatments that offer the best chance at a healthy, happy life.

What we treat

We have a dedicated care team for treating blood cancers, cancers that start when the bone marrow produces large amounts of abnormal blood cells. Leukemia and lymphoma are the two most common blood cancers.

Leukemia

Leukemia begins when abnormal cells called blasts start to replace a patient’s bone marrow. When this happens, the bone marrow can no longer do its normal job of making red blood cells, platelets and white blood cells. Bruising, bleeding, fever, bone pain and fatigue are often early signs of leukemia.

Levine Children’s helps kids with many types of leukemia:

• Acute leukemias, which develop from abnormal white blood cells and spread quickly. There are two main types of acute leukemia:
• Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)
  • T-cell ALL
  • B-cell ALL
• Acute myeloid leukemia (AML)
• Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), which occurs when the body produces too many myeloid white blood cells, but does it more slowly than with acute myeloid leukemia.

Lymphoma

There are many different types of lymphoma and these cancers can be found in any place in the body. We have expertise in all childhood lymphomas, including:

• Hodgkin lymphoma, which involves a specific type of cell called the Reed-Sternberg cell.
• Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
  • Burkitt’s lymphoma
  • Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
  • B-lymphoblastic lymphoma
  • T-lymphoblastic lymphoma
  • Anaplastic large-cell lymphoma
  • Other rare slow-growing lymphomas more often seen in adults

Treating leukemia and lymphoma

Levine Children’s uses a team approach to evaluate your child from every angle. Then we create a custom treatment plan. Our therapies include:

• Chemotherapy, medicines that kill cancer cells. Most chemotherapy treatments don’t require an inpatient hospital stay and can be done in our kid-friendly outpatient infusion center.
• Radiation therapy, using high-energy rays to target cancer cells. We have dedicated radiation oncologists who have lots of experience treating kids.
• Immunotherapies, which activate your child’s immune system to attack cancer cells. We offer clinical trials of the latest immunotherapies, which typically are less toxic and have fewer side effects than traditional cancer treatments.
• Bone marrow transplants, where we replace a child’s bone marrow with bone marrow from a healthy donor. This can help the body make healthy blood cells instead of cancerous cells. Our transplant program has some of the region's best outcomes, and we’re exploring ways to make transplants available to patients who can’t find a perfectly matched donor.

Support services

Cancer affects every part of a child’s life, from their mental health to their nutrition. That’s why we offer support services including:

• Child life specialists, who help kids with everything from understanding treatments to explaining their illness to teachers and classmates.
• Child psychologists, who specialize in helping childhood cancer survivors. For instance, these children often have trouble transitioning back to school. Our specialists assess how children learn. Then we develop education plans that set them up for success.
• Integrative medicine using therapies like Reiki and massage to help kids heal.
• Patient support groups, which help children with cancer connect with other kids just like them.
• Parent support groups, which connect parents with other families dealing with childhood cancer.
• Social workers who help assess families’ financial and emotional needs and provide resources to help.
• Survivorship programs, which help children get treatments to stay healthy and manage complications once their cancer is in remission.

• Specialized blood cancer experts. We have a group of pediatric hematologist-oncologists solely dedicated to treating leukemias and lymphomas. That means they have lots of experience with leukemia and lymphoma and know the best treatments for each type and stage.
• Comprehensive support for kids and families. Our patients don’t just have access to top doctors – we pair each child with psychologists, nurses, social workers and other experts who specialize in helping children and families cope with cancer. We pay close attention to how cancer affects every part of a child’s life – from diet to exercise to schoolwork – and find ways to meet their specific needs.
• Research and clinical trials. Many of our physicians are also researchers pursuing the next generation of breakthroughs. Through our partnerships with the Children’s Oncology Group and Therapeutic Advances in Childhood Leukemia and Lymphoma Consortium (TACL), we offer access to clinical trials of the latest, most effective therapies.
• Care from childhood to adulthood. We care for children and young adults who’ve been diagnosed with blood cancers up to age 26. As our patients become adults, we transition them to our program at Levine Cancer Institute. This gives our patients continuous care from a health organization they know and trust.