Julie Guest

Julie Guest (Stem Cell Transplant Clinical Nurse Specialist, Great North Children’s Hospital,) organised and hosted a study day in New Advances in Paediatric Haematology and Oncology Transplantation at the Great North Museum in Newcastle.  The event, sponsored by Jazz Pharmaceuticals, was a fantastic opportunity to get together specialists to discuss current and future developments in paediatric oncology, in particular the new advances which have come about in the last 5 years as novel treatments.   Several experts in this field presented throughout the day:

  • Dr Kate Wheeler (Consultant Paediatric Oncologist and Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer, University of Oxford) introducing the day talking about governance issues around autologous transplantation.
  • Professor Deborah Tweddle (Honorary Consultant Paediatric and Adolescent Oncology, Great North Children’s Hospital) and Professor Simon Bailey (Consultant in Paediatric Oncology) from the Great North Children’s Hospital spoke about autologous transplants within Neuroblastoma and Medulloblastoma respectively.
  • Professor Andrew Gennery (Honorary Consultant Paediatric Immunologist, Great North Children’s Hospital) talked about Extracorporeal Photopheresis, of which Newcastle is a centre for excellence.
  • Dr Raj Hanvesakul (Medical Director, Jazz Pharmaceuticals) presented on paediatric EBMT (European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation) and Veno Occlusive Disease guidelines.
  • Dr Denise Bonney (Consultant Haematologist) completed the experienced lineup with her work on CAR T-cells in Paediatric Leukaemia in Manchester Children’s Hospital.  This took us back to the first CAR T-cell engineering back in 1992 to the present day with the landmark NHS England deal with Novartis and the wave of treatments about to commence amongst young people with ALL.

A very interesting, useful and thought provoking day, which, with so many highly expert speakers within paediatric oncology, fulfilled one of its key objectives in providing training for PHD students, as well as medical staff and allied health professionals at all levels.