With more than 50 specialties and sub-specialties, the M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital is able to provide the expertise each patient needs, when they need it, which is particularly valuable for the successful treatment of sarcomas.
Overview
Solid tumors include what is commonly called bone cancer, but also includes cancer of the soft tissue – cancer that begins in any of the body’s supporting tissue, such as the muscles, tendons, blood vessels or fat. Malignant tumors of the bone and soft tissue are referred to as sarcomas.
Our goal is a cure for all patients with soft tissue and bone cancers that include: osteosarcoma, Ewing sarcoma, neuroblastoma, hepatoblastoma (liver cancer), germ cell tumors, rhabdomyosarcoma, synovial sarcoma, Wilm’s tumor (kidney cancer), and other rare solid tumors.
Our approach
Children treated here have access to more clinical trials and new treatments than anywhere else in Minnesota. Many of the treatments now available to children with cancer were pioneered here at our National Cancer Institute-designated research facility, Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota. Our discoveries often become the standard of care for patients around the world.
Treatment of pediatric solid tumors requires the expertise of a number of specialists to offer the best opportunity for cure. With more than 50 specialties and sub-specialties, the M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital is able to provide the expertise each patient needs, when they need it, which is particularly valuable for the successful treatment of sarcomas.
Comprehensive solid tumor cancer care, including orthopedic oncology
We diagnose and treat more patients with sarcomas than any other pediatric center in the state and, in the Twin Cities area, ours is the only program that offers complete, comprehensive treatment under one roof, including orthopaedic surgical oncologists. Our patients benefit from our experience and our success in conducting limb-salvage procedures, resulting in fewer amputations for our patients, compared to national averages.
Neuroblastoma: New hope with investigational MIBG therapy
Approximately half of all children with neuroblastoma have high risk disease at diagnosis. Targeted therapy using radioiodine labeled metaiodobenzylguanidine (131I-MIBG) is a highly promising investigational therapy for children with recurrent or refractory neuroblastoma. M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital is the only facility in Minnesota able offer this advanced therapy.
Our hospital is also home to one of the nation’s premier pediatric blood and marrow transplantation (BMT) programs, which may be a recommended treatment for a child diagnosed with a solid tumor.