We are the combination of four hospitals: the General Hospital, the Children’s Hospital, the Women’s Hospital and the Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospital. We are part of the Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus: a world-leading health park where healthcare plays a crucial role.
Patients are the centre and the core of our system. We are professionals committed to quality care and our organizational structure breaks down the traditional boundaries between departments and professional groups, with an exclusive model of knowledge areas.
Would you like to know what your stay at Vall d'Hebron will be like? Here you will find all the information.
The commitment of Vall d'Hebron University Hospital to innovation allows us to be at the forefront of medicine, providing first class care adapted to the changing needs of each patient.
The Paediatric Haematology and Oncology Department is at the forefront of the treatment of cancer, haematological diseases and transplant of haematopoietic progenitors (known as ‘bone marrow transplant’) in childhood and adolescence. Of every 1200 new cases of childhood cancer detected every year in Spain, around 250 are diagnosed in Catalonia.
Childhood cancer is the leading cause of child mortality due to illness in children over one year old. At present, we have managed to ensure that survival is around 80%, but we are working every day to make progress in research so we can cure all children and adolescents with cancer and also reduce the after-effects of short and long-term treatment.
According to data from the Spanish Register of Child Tumours (RETI), our department is one of the leading centres in the country, and a reference centre for procedures such as the transplant of haematopoietic progenitors or stem cells (with over 1300 performed) and for pathologies such as sarcomas, neuroblastoma or bone-marrow failure syndromes.
We are also a reference centre for European Reference Networks for paediatric cancer, non-malignant haematology (EuroBloodNet) and paediatric transplant (TransplantChild). This is the department with the most accumulated experience in the country, with more than 3400 patients with child cancer treated over the last 40 years and our rates of cure are equivalent to international centres of excellence.
The department has a long history of receiving patients from other centres in order to treat complex cases, such as patients with rare cancers, highly complex surgery, transplant haematopoietic progenitors and clinical trials phase 1 and 2.
The most common types of cancer we treat are leukaemia, brain tumours, lymphomas, neuroblastomas, bone and soft tissue sarcomas, kidney and liver tumours. We also treat non-malignant haematological pathology in children and adolescents, with particular focus on drepanocytosis (sickle cell anaemia), where we are the reference centre for Catalonia’s screening programme, and congenital bone-marrow failure syndromes such as Fanconi’s anaemia.
Our department deals with all malignant onco-haematological diseases (all types of child cancer) and non-malignant haematological (blood) diseases. These include:
The treatments available include:
We have an onco-haematologist on duty 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for oncological emergency care and with specialised multi-disciplinary consultations on genetic counselling and predisposition to child cancer, cancer in adolescents and young adults and in phase 1-2 clinical trials.
Facilities
The Day Hospital dedicated to Paediatric Oncology and Haematology (the ground floor of the Children’s Hospital) handles over 4000 visits a year for treatment and over 11000 medical visits. Regarding hospitalisation (1st floor of the Children's Hospital), we carry out about 700 discharges per year.
Our service has 24 hospitalisation beds and 7 transplant beds, 6 doctor's offices and 10 Day Hospital facilities. We also have a sedation office for onco-haematological patients. Our experience, staff and advanced technological prowess mean our department can offer multidisciplinary, comprehensive care to patients and their families, covering all diagnostic procedures and offering the most advanced treatments.
Our team includes oncologists and paediatric haematologists, nurses specialised in haemato-oncology and paediatric transplants, psycho-oncologists, social workers, volunteers; as well as a large multidisciplinary team including radiotherapy, pharmacy, rehabilitation, physiotherapy, nutritional support and all surgical specialities to perform highly complex surgery (paediatric oncology surgery, paediatric neurosurgery, traumatology and paediatric orthopaedics, among others) and doctors; in collaboration with the whole Vall d’Hebron Campus for the availability of high technology and complex procedures.
Care for children and the family
Our main goal is to provide the best care to our patients and their families. To provide more human attention, we develop projects with professionals, families and associations, by incorporating new technologies, such as virtual reality, new devices to administer chemotherapy (Superbox project), play care. Thanks to the invaluable collaboration and support of AFANOC, we can carry out music therapy and art therapy activities.
The Research Group in Child Cancer and Haematological Pathologies is focussed on the research of new treatments and biomarkers for child cancer and haematological diseases. Our department, in its role as an international reference centre, actively participates in and leads initiatives in many international scientific societies, such as the International Society of Paediatric Oncology Europe [SIOPE], European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) and Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR), European Paediatric Soft Tissue Sarcoma Group (EPSSG), European Network for Neuroblastoma Research (SIOPEN), leukaemia (international BFM group) and in new drugs (Innovative Therapies for Children with Cancer (ITCC)).
At the national level, Vall d’Hebron leads the bone-marrow failure, soft tissue sarcoma and personalised medicine groups of the Spanish Society of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology (SEHOP). We have active collaborations with international centres such as Royal Marsden (London), Dana Farber (Boston), Gustave Roussy (Paris) and Princess Maxima (Utrecht).
The research group includes three laboratories (sarcomas - Dr. Josep Roma, neuroblastoma and brain tumours - Dr. Miquel Segura and minority anaemias Dr. Mar Mañu), and three clinical research programmes: Clinical Trials Unit (Drs. Raquel Hladun and Lucas Moreno), haematology, cell therapy and transplant programme (Dr. Cristina Diaz de Heredia) and personalised medicine programme (Drs. Aroa Soriano and Lucas Moreno).
The clinical trial unit has over 50 clinical trials in all phases for paediatric cancer, with over 30 phase 1-2 trials of new drugs, including molecular therapies, immunotherapy and cell therapy, such as CAR-T. We receive patients from centres all over Spain to facilitate access to new drugs in cases of cancers where conventional treatment has failed. The personalised medicine programme provides access to the genetic sequencing of patients' tumours to seek new treatments.
Education and training programmes
Every year, our centre welcomes 18 new residents in the Paediatrics specialism and its specific areas. During their training period, they rotate through Paediatric Oncology and Haematology for three months. We also receive external rotations from other national or international centres that wish to further their knowledge in this area, as well as medical students from the Autonomous University of Barcelona completing work placements during the 4th and 6th years of their degree.
The Department also has a 2-year training programme in paediatric oncology and haematology and the transplant of haematopoietic progenitors for doctors who have completed their residency whose aim it is to acquire highly specialised training. Lastly, together with the research institute (VHIR) and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, several master’s, doctoral programmes and postgraduate courses are operated, and we receive students from other disciplines such as nursing, psychology and other biomedical sciences.
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Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders
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