How does the POB augment work in the extramural community?
Progress against cancer in children has benefited greatly from well-organized cooperative groups in the extramural community that conduct efficient and large randomized trials. However, future progress hinges upon biologic insight and targeted therapies, both of which begin in a basic science laboratory. The focused basic and clinical science conducted in the POB provides the basis and rationale for new therapies, which, if successful, would ultimately be tested in the extramural community. In what case would a child, adolescent, or young adult come to clinicians in the POB at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda for treatment? The POB conducts clinical trials targeting a variety of childhood cancers and cancer predisposition syndromes for which outcomes with standard therapies are suboptimal. Any child, adolescent, or young adult who is eligible for such trials may be treated in the POB. In some cases, this represents frontline therapy for a newly diagnosed cancer and in others, the th
