The mission of our Pediatric Oncology Experimental Therapeutics Program, which are supported by Four Diamonds, THON and Mini-THON, is to develop and provide access to novel experimental treatments that incorporate cutting-edge science to children and adolescents with all types of cancer using a multidisciplinary team approach with patients and their families being at the center of their healthcare team. At the heart of this program is Experimental Therapeutics Research and Clinical Team (ExTRaCT) which is composed of six physicians with diverse areas of expertise, one nurse practitioner, one pediatric oncology pharmacy specialist, one clinical research nurse, one compliance/regulatory specialist and two database managers. This dedicated team provides access to early phase clinical trials including those sponsored by consortia such as POETIC. In addition to our outstanding clinical care enterprise, our basic science and translational laboratory research endeavors are thriving within our division as well as in the Penn State Cancer Institute here on the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center campus. All of these resources and efforts together create an outstanding environment in which innovative therapies can be translated directly to the patient’s bedside. All of our patients directly benefit from this cohesive network of researchers and healthcare providers.

Dr. Brown is a Pediatric Oncologist and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) Specialist at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital located in Hershey, PA, with over 15 years of experience. She earned her MD and PhD at University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and did her pediatrics residency and pediatrics hematology/oncology fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where she remained for almost 10 years as an attending/faculty. Dr. Brown has had a long-standing interest in discovering new strategies to treat childhood cancer that include biologically-relevant approaches with the goal of maximizing cure rates while minimizing short- and long-term toxicities. Early on, she developed an expertise in understanding the “deranged network wiring” within a leukemia cell that sustains its growth and survival and then how best to “short circuit” this wiring such that it is no longer viable. This early work contributed to the development of novel, biologically- targeted treatment strategies for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Since then, Dr. Brown’s scientific interests have transitioned more towards the design and testing of innovative approaches that incorporate molecularly targeted agents either to the tumor itself or its microenvironment for the treatment of pediatric cancers. Because of her extensive experience in translating pre-clinical, scientific observations into feasible regimens, Dr. Brown is currently the Director of Experimental Therapeutics and Leader of the Experimental Therapeutics Research and Clinical Team (ExTRaCT) in the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. In addition, she is the Associate Chief of Programmatic and Faculty Development of the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Director of the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellowship Program, and Director of the Institutional-wide Physician-Scientist Training Program.

Dr. McGregor is a professor of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Penn State College of Medicine and an attending physician at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital. Dr. McGregor graduated with a Bachelor in Science in Applied Biology from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She received her MD from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and her PhD in Human Genetics from Johns Hopkins University. After completing residency training in Pediatrics at Duke University Medical Center, she moved to Memphis, TN, for her Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellowship training at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Dr. McGregor remained at St. Jude for the next eight years as a faculty member in the Solid Tumor Division. While at St. Jude, Dr. McGregor developed clinical expertise in neuroblastoma and focused her research on developing new drugs and drug combinations for the treatment of children with refractory solid tumors. She led institutional and national phase I trials of new agents and combinations of agents for the treatment of pediatric solid tumors. Dr. McGregor currently serves as the Associate Division Chief of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology as well as the medical director of the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Clinic and Pediatric Infusion Center. Her clinical interests continue to be children with cancer, especially solid tumors. Her research efforts focus on interventions to improve the cure rates for children with cancer as the Principal Investigator for the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) at Penn State Children’s Hospital and to develop new therapies for children with cancer through her work in the Pediatric Oncology Experimental Therapeutics Investigators’ Consortium (POETIC) and the institutional Four Diamonds Experimental Therapeutics Research and Clinical Team (ExTRaCT). Dr. McGregor is actively involved in training our next generation of pediatricians and pediatric hematologists/oncologists as a teacher and mentor. As part of her educational work, she provides mentorship to pediatric hematology/oncology fellows and serves as the chair of the Clinical Competency Committee for the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellowship Program.