Kathryn Duke, NP

AeRang Kim, MD, PhD, is a member of the solid tumor faculty at Children’s National Hospital and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics. Dr. Kim's specializes in sarcomas and developmental therapeutics. Her research focuses on development of novel therapeutics for pediatric cancer including pre-clinical testing of novel agents, pharmacokinetic analysis, developing innovative methods for toxicity monitoring and clinical trial design. She serves as the principal investigator of multiple early phase trials in pediatric oncology, sarcomas and NF1 associated tumors. Dr. Kim is highly rated in 8 conditions, according to our data. Her clinical expertise encompasses Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumor, Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1), Neurofibromatosis, and Adult Soft Tissue Sarcoma. Dr. Kim is board certified in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology: American Board Of Pediatrics, 2009 and Pediatrics: American Board Of Pediatrics, 2004.

Jeffrey Dome, MD, PhD, is senior vice president of the Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. He is professor of pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and the Thomas Willson and Lenore Williams McKnew professor of pediatric oncology. Dr. Dome received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and PhD degree in medicine from Erasmus University in Rotterdam. He completed a residency in pediatrics at Yale-New Haven Hospital and completed a fellowship in pediatric hematology/oncology at Johns Hopkins Hospital. After fellowship, Dr. Dome was a faculty member at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital before joining Children’s National in 2006. Dr. Dome is an internationally recognized expert on pediatric solid tumors, with an emphasis on kidney tumors and sarcomas. He chaired the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) Renal Tumor Committee for more than a decade. He is presently on the Scientific Council of the COG, the editorial board of Pediatric Blood and Cancer, and is past chair of the American Board of Pediatrics Subboard of Hematology/Oncology. Dr. Dome serves on numerous medical advisory boards for cancer foundations and currently is the North American Continental President of the International Society of Pediatric Oncology (SIOP). He has authored more than 200 articles, books, letters and chapters on pediatric cancer. Dr. Dome is highly rated in 17 conditions, according to our data. His clinical expertise encompasses Rhabdoid Tumor, Denys-Drash Syndrome (DDS), Adult Soft Tissue Sarcoma, Nephrectomy, and Bone Marrow Aspiration. Dr. Dome is board certified in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology: American Board Of Pediatrics, 1998.

"In her first decade as a pediatric oncologist, Dr. Symons already has shown an impressive ability to juggle multiple research projects, in addition to caring for patients. One of Dr. Symons' research pursuits focuses on using a novel immunotherapy approach to treating both solid tumors and hematologic (blood-borne) malignancies. The basis of her work stems from the theory that cancer patients' immune systems should recognize tumor cells as foreign and destroy them. This doesn't happen, theorizes Dr. Symons, because the immune system attacks only those cells it perceives as dangerous—not cancer cells, which it sees simply as foreign. That's where her research comes into play. Evaluating an experimental therapy, Dr. Symons is pairing donor lymphocytes (white blood cells that activate the body's immune system) with chemotherapy to determine if this combination will ""awaken"" patients' immune systems to the danger of existing cancer cells and, in turn, elicit an immune response. In a separate yet equally compelling research endeavor, Dr. Symons is working to increase the availability of donors for children whose cancer requires bone marrow transplants (BMTs) as a potentially lifesaving treatment. ""It can be challenging to find a 'matched' donor,"" says Dr. Symons, who explains that only about 40 percent of patients who require a BMT find a matched donor. ""Sometimes, we don't have the benefit of time, because remissions can be short-lived. But almost all patients have a half-matched donor: a parent, sibling, or child,"" adds Dr. Symons, who is examining ways to reduce BMT-related complications ordinarily associated with half-matched donors after ablative (high dose) chemotherapy. ""Like anything else that's new, it will take some time to prove that this is a feasible option that's safe,"" she says. But she's optimistic. ""It has the potential to revolutionize BMT."" Dr. Symons knows it's worth the wait. ""Seeing the research I do in the lab translate into clinical trials, then seeing patients in these trials survive long term, is incredibly rewarding,"" she says.". Dr. Symons is highly rated in 3 conditions, according to our data. Her clinical expertise encompasses Graft Versus Host Disease (GvHD), Aplastic Anemia, Anemia, Leukemia, and Bone Marrow Transplant. Dr. Symons is board certified in American Board Of Pediatrics.