Hemato-oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation

Department for Pediatrics

Center of excellence and regional referral center

  • The Dana-Dwek Children’s Hospital Pediatric Hemato-oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation Department treats infants, children, and adolescents suffering from acute and chronic blood diseases and from malignant hematological and non-hematological disorders. 
  • The department treats thousands of patients per year in inpatient, outpatient, and ambulatory day hospital settings, specializing in complex cases. The department’s Late Effects Clinic conducts centralized treatment and follow-up during all stages of patient recovery and during remission.

The department treats thousands of patients per year in inpatient, outpatient, and ambulatory day hospital settings, specializing in complex cases. The department’s Late Effects Clinic conducts centralized treatment and follow-up during all stages of patient recovery and during remission.

About Us

The multidisciplinary staff of doctors, nurses, educators, and psycho-sociologists work as a team to provide pediatric patients personalized leading-edge care. Treatment spans the spectrum of settings, during clinic appointments, day hospital visits (which enable children to return home each afternoon/evening), and hospitalization for extended care.
With special focus on children’s quality of life, the Pediatric Hemato-oncology Department offers a child-friendly environment.

Complementary services

Patient's family members receive warm assistance in a supportive, comfortable environment by expert clinical, educational, and psychosocial staff.
All facilities are designed specifically for children, to make their stay more comfortable, with a play area, cozy seating corners, computers, games, videos, and other kid-friendly entertainment.
Many patients are treated at the Day Hospital, which enables them to return home daily in the afternoon. This approach helps preserve the child’s natural surroundings, promoting emotional health.

The department treats the following types of conditions:

  • Acute and chronic leukemia
  • Brain tumors: Patient care is provided in collaboration with the Department of Pediatric Neurosurgery
  • Bone and soft tissue tumors: Treatment is delivered in collaboration with the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center’s National Orthopedic Oncology Department
  • Cancer of the lymphatic system: Treating lymphoma such as Hodgkin’s lymphoma
  • Tumors of the kidneys, adrenal glands, testicles, and ovaries
  • Rare malignant pediatric tumors

Additional conditions treated:
  • Anemia of various causes: Nutritional deficits, blood cell damage, and chronic red blood cell diseases, such as spherocytosis, sickle cell anemia, and thalassemia
  • White blood cell conditions, including various neutropenic (low white blood cell count) conditions
  • Platelet disorders: The department has a wealth of expertise in immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), the most common platelet disorder in children
  • Bone marrow failure syndromes
  • Diseases of excessive bleeding and thrombophilia – both heredity and congenital
  • Histiocytosis: The department has extensive experience in treating Langerhans cell histiocytosis

Blood tests: In order to minimize wait times for blood counts, testing is performed on-site in the department and the results are received within minutes.

  • Hematological investigations and diagnostics including bone marrow testing and spinal taps: These tests are performed pain-free with the help of the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center’s Dream Service (pediatric service that helps children undergo treatment and testing under sedation).
  • Various blood and blood product transfusions
  • Intravenous iron supplementation
  • Immunotherapy treatments, including immunoglobulins, rituximab (Mabthera), and anti-D
  • Chemotherapy administrations: The range of oral, peripheral intravenous, and central venous catheter administrations are performed according to national and international protocols

The Pediatric Hemato-oncology Department performs a full array of bone marrow transplants (BMT) for children, sourced by self-donated (autologous) marrow, peripheral blood donations and donations from related or unrelated donors (allogeneic).
Self-donation transplants are performed for malignant conditions, such as recurrent lymphoma, metastasized bone cancers, high-risk neuroblastoma, and specific types of brain tumors.
Allogeneic BMTs treat malignant diseases, such as hematologic (blood) cancers and non-malignant diseases, such as congenital immunodeficiencies, metabolic disorders, and hereditary blood diseases

Pre-transplant care
The pediatric BMT service offers pre-transplant care, such as transplant-type decision-making and multidisciplinary testing to prepare the donor and the patient for the procedure.

Transplant accommodations
Transplants are performed in specially designed rooms to accommodate the unique needs of children and to protect the patient from life-threatening infections; rooms feature positive pressure and air filtration systems.

Departmental bone marrow transplant services offer essential medical expertise and complementary services to patients with complex health conditions.

Post-transplant care

Following the transplant, the patient returns home and remains under close, extended follow-up by the Post-BMT Clinic. During this recovery period, the patient is monitored for successful acceptance of the transplant, tracked for immune system recovery, and treated for potential complications.

The Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit is recognized by the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) as an international BMT center for bone marrow transplantation from familial as well as non-familial donors and for autologous transplant. The Pediatric BMT service is also authorized to publish research in international medical journals.

The service diagnoses patients with sarcoma, and collaborates with the Pediatric Orthopedic Oncology Unit, Israel’s national center of excellence to treat children with the condition. A physician case manager is assigned to each patient for personalized guidance and oversight.

​The Pediatric Hemato-oncology Clinics and Day Hospital provide expert consultation, treatments and follow-up to patients. 

​Clinic services
The clinics provide care for:
  • Oncology patients needing follow-up
  • Patients with anemia due to disease, nutritional deficiencies, etc. 
  • Disorders of white blood cells and platelet disorders
  • Bone marrow failure 
  • Bleeding and clotting disorders 
  • Histiocytic disorders 
The Day Hospital provides a wide range of treatments that do not require overnight stays, enabling children their families to return to their familiar home environment

About 80% of children with cancer recover, thanks to advances in treatment. Due to high recovery rates, about one in 500 adults between the ages of 20 and 40 is a survivor of childhood cancer.

As survival and life expectancy improve, the literature shows increasing incidence of patients who experience a variety of side effects that lead to cumulative morbidity over time. Some side effects appear shortly after the initial disease diagnosis and treatment, while others may appear many years later. The effects can occur in any of the body's systems, and depend on the underlying disease and treatment. Some side effects display clear symptoms while others are asymptomatic. Without proper monitoring, these disorders can be detected very late in the game.

Clinic services

The Late Effects Clinic monitors children age five and above who have recovered from disease, with the goal of treating late effects early on.
Although most patients who have recovered feel good once they are in remission, they can experience long-term effects of treatment on various body systems. The Late Effects Clinic tailors follow-up protocols for each child, their original disease, the treatments undergone, and the situations that need to be monitored.
The Late Effects Clinic provides a multidisciplinary solution in collaboration with experts from numerous disciplines, in order to address the range of survivors' problems. The goal is to continue working with the children and adolescents to support a healthier adulthood. The clinic also conducts research in this relatively "young" field. 

Patient-centered care

The clinic vision is based on the "medical home" model, where the Medical Center is the home base for patients for years, centrally addressing their medical problems, while keeping in touch with community physicians who share their care. The clinic provides guidance on late effects and works to transition patients to medical providers one they reach adulthood. 
The clinic is unique in that, after the initial visit, each patient is invited for a single, concentrated consultation day with a panel of specialists, including endocrinology, nephrology, cardiology, etc.
The goal is to make sure children who have recovered from illness stay healthy and return to lead full lives into adulthood.
}