Histiocytosis Program
The Texas Children's Cancer Centers Histiocytosis Program has the largest Histiocytosis Clinic in the world. The Clinic is associated with Baylor College of Medicine, one of the top medical schools in the country, and Texas Children's Hospital, the largest pediatric hospital in the United States.
The Texas Children's Cancer Center has the unique capability of providing the highest "state of the art" treatment for children with the disorders listed below. Dr. McClain and a team of internal medicine physicians are also available to evaluate adults with LCH or Rosai Dorfman Syndrome and advise for appropriate treatment plans.
The Program Director, Kenneth L. McClain, M.D., Ph.D. is the past president of the Histiocyte Society and has been treating patients with histiocytic disorders for over twenty years. He is a participant in the committees for LCH and HLH treatments in the Histiocyte Society and is the coordinator for the LCH-III, and LCH-CNS protocols in the United States. Carl E. Allen, M.D., Ph.D. is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Histiocyte Society and oversees the Histiocytosis Research Program at TXCH. Together they see over 100 new LCH and HLH patients per year, and have over 400 active patients in the clinic.
Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH) and related histiocytic diseases are rare, often frightening and disabling diseases of white blood cells. The purpose of the Histiocytosis Program at the Texas Children’s Cancer Center is to provide the best care available today for childen and adults, and ultimately to find cures. At the Texas Children’s Cancer Center, histiocytic disorders are not rare. The Histiocytosis Clinic is the largest in the world, and the dramatic increase in the number of patients seen here, 350 new patients since 2006, now provides an opportunity for our program to develop and expand clinical trials of innovative therapies and lead the world in research of LCH, HLH, JXG, RDD, and ECD. The clinical experience we have developed, coupled with the basic research studies we can design with rare biopsy and other tissues samples, provide the unique opportunity for us to establish clinical and biologic correlations that no other center in the world can. We have built a program to discover the causes of these conditions so that we may expedite development of more effective and innovative therapies.
Texas Children’s Hospital seeks support to expand Texas Children’s Cancer Center’s ongoing Histiocytosis research program in order to pursue additional state-of-the-art investigations.