Program to give kids with cancer better treatment

HARLINGEN - Starting next year, Rio Grande Valley children with cancer will have easier access to clinical trials that offer cutting-edge therapies and medications.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is launching a program to refer more South Texas children with leukemia to clinical-research projects and help families overcome barriers to participating, officials confirmed Tuesday.

Through a $100,000 grant from the National Cancer Institute, the medical school will hire a "patient navigator" to identify children who might qualify for clinical trials in San Antonio, said Amelie Ramirez, director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health Science Center.

The patient navigator will work at the Regional Academic Health Center in Harlingen.

Researchers have two motives to start this program, Ramirez said. They want to reach more children with leukemia in the Valley, a region in which families often lack access to basic medical care, and also enroll more Hispanic children in clinical trials, she said.

"In clinical trials in general, Latinos are usually underrepresented," she said.

According to the Institute for Health Promotion Research, incidence of childhood leukemia is higher in South Texas than the rest of the state or nation.

Hispanic children seem to have a slightly higher risk of developing leukemia than children of other races, and therefore more outreach is needed, Ramirez said.

"We want to make sure that if they are diagnosed (with the disease), that families know these trials are available," she said.

Through this program, medical students and students seeking a master's degree in public health also will have the opportunity to collaborate on clinical research, said Dr. Leonel Vela, regional dean of the RAHC.

Students will help assess data from the clinical trials, Vela said.