SIOP Board of Directors

Kathy Pritchard-Jones

SIOP President

Kathy Pritchard-Jones is President of SIOP and Professor of Paediatric Oncology at University College London (UCL) Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London, UK. She is an internationally recognised expert in childhood kidney cancers, where she has extensive experience of running multi-centre and international clinical trials and translational research. She also works with epidemiologists and healthcare data scientists for international benchmarking and outcomes research. She has a track record of enabling partnership working to deliver quality improvement in complex care and to accelerate research across both adult and childhood cancer services. Throughout her career she has been an active member of the work of the national Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG), the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) and SIOP Europe. She has published over 250 articles in the field of childhood cancer.

Stephen Hunger

Treasurer

Dr. Hunger is Professor of Pediatrics, the Jeffrey E. Perelman Distinguished Chair in the Department of Pediatrics, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Oncology and Director of the Center for Childhood Cancer Research at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Hunger is Professor of Pediatrics, the Jeffrey E. Perelman Distinguished Chair in the Department of Pediatrics, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Oncology and Director of the Center for Childhood Cancer Research at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Hunger is an internationally recognized expert in the molecular genetics and treatment of childhood ALL and was Chair of the Children’s Oncology Group ALL Disease Committee from 2008-15 and leads the COG ALL TARGET project, which has led to major new insights into the genetics of ALL and identified important new therapeutic targets. Dr. Hunger also has an interest in global health with a focus on improving treatment for children with ALL in low and middle income countries.

Lisa Morrissey

Chair of the Nursing Committee

Lisa is a nurse leader in the Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Hospital (DF/BCH) Cancer and Blood Disorders Program in Boston, MA. She holds an MSN degree in Nursing Administration from Northeastern University, and a MPH in Healthcare Management from Harvard School of Public Health. Lisa is the Nurse Manager for the Inpatient Hematology/Oncology/Research at BCH, and Director of the BHC Global Nurse Fellowship program. She has led several nursing global partnerships in resource-limited countries including Tanzania, Central America, the Dominican Republic and Myanmar, promoting education, professionalism and collaboration for pediatric oncology nurses. Lisa is co-chair of the SIOP PODC Nursing workgroup and an active member of the SIOP Nursing Baseline Standards Task Force.

Wade Kyono

Local Organising Committee Chair-Hawaii

Dr. Wade Kyono is a full-time clinician with fifteen percent of his time devoted to research and education. He is the principal investigator for COG and coordinates these cooperative group research activities with the University of Hawai‘i Cancer Center NCI Community Oncology Research Program (UHCC NCORP). His areas of interest include neutrophil/ myeloid cell signaling and function, iron overload/ chelation therapy, hematopoietic progenitor cell transplant for non-malignant conditions, as well as general clinical pediatric oncology. His prior research in neutrophil function and signaling in Pacific Islander children with increased infections was supported by a NIH/RCMI minority institution grant (CCRE) funded through the Kapi’olani Clinical Research Center, and a Leahi Fund Hawaii Community Foundation Grant. He is involved with the 1st year clinical skills preceptorship and the teaching of 3rd and 4th year medical students during their pediatric rotations, along with the training of pediatric residents. He participates as a Medical Advisory Board member for the Hawai‘i Chapter of Make-A-Wish. Dr. Kyono attended Johns Hopkins University in Maryland prior to receiving an MD degree and completing a Pediatric residency at John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii. He completed a fellowship at Children’s Hospital LA, Division of Hem-Onc before returning to Hawaii. He is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at JABSOM.

Julia Challinor

Secretary General

Julia Challinor, (RN, PhD, MS in Education and MS in Med Anthropology) serves as a consultant for multiple international projects for childhood cancer and pediatric oncology nursing, including the APHON Spanish Chemotherapy/Biotherapy course in Latin America. She was the Educational Liaison for children with cancer and those who had survived their disease at the University of California, San Francisco from 1993-2003. During 1994-2006, she also headed A Tomorrow for Children Foundation and worked in partnership with pediatric oncology centers that are members of the Asociación de Hemato-Oncología Pediátrica de Centro America (AHOPCA), collaborating with Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario (Canada) (POGO), and the Monza International School of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (Italy) (MISPHO). Recently she has participated in pediatric oncology nursing initiatives in Ethiopia and India. As the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) Advocacy Officer Julia has participated in the WHO Global Childhood Initiative for Childhood Cancer (GICC) since 2018, the WHO (GICC) workshop in Lima Peru in 2019 and ongoing related nursing projects in the country. Other tasks include a continued role in WHO GICC nursing issues and the SIOP Global Mapping of Pediatric Oncology Services project.

Lillian Sung

Scientific Committee Chair

Dr. Sung joined the staff at The Hospital for Sick Children in September 2004 after completing fellowships in Haematology, Infectious Diseases and Clinical Investigation and receiving a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Toronto. She is a Paediatric Oncologist and Clinician Scientist with an independent research program focused on supportive care for children with cancer. Her overall goal is to optimize supportive care for children with cancer, with an aim to maximize quality of life, survival and cost-effectiveness. She is the Chair of Cancer Control and Supportive Care for the Children’s Oncology Group (COG). This group oversees all studies of supportive care including studies related to symptom management and patient-reported outcomes. Her research program is currently focused on symptom screening and interventions to reduce fatigue in paediatric cancer patients. She holds a Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute Impact Grant and has previously received operating grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the National Institutes of Health (NIH, R21). She is the Co-Principal Investigator of the COG National Cancer Institute Community Oncology Research Program (UG1CA189955) and an NIH R25 in collaboration with the American Society of Hematology. Her clinical focus is on the inpatient care of children and adolescents with leukemia and lymphoma. She also has a major focus on research education. She has taught graduate courses for the School of Graduate Studies, University of Toronto since her faculty appointment and she currently co-directs an advanced randomized trials course. In addition, she has contributed to the development of the Clinical Research Training Institute supported by the American Society of Hematology and developed a research training course in Latin America and Qatar.

Muhammad Saghir Khan

PODC Co-Chair

Muhhamad Saghir Khan (MD) is co chair of SIOP PODC. He is currently working as Specialist Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Physician at Tawam Hospital Al Ain United Arab Emirates. He completed his medical education including Pediatric Oncology fellowship from Pakistan, and had served as General Secretary of PSPO (Pakistan Society of Pediatric Oncology) during 2013-2014. He is former co chair of SIOP PODC Supportive Care working group (2014-2018). He has actively been involved in Pediatric Oncology East Mediterranean group (POEM) since it’s foundation. Saghir has contributed as leader/member of scientific committees for several National, Regional and International Pediatric Oncology Conferences. He played vital role as Scientific Co Chair of SIOP Asia 2019 held at Abu Dhabi.

Michael Sullivan

PODC Co-Chair

Michael Sullivan is a Paediatric Oncologist and Neuro-Oncologist in the Children’s Cancer Centre, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, a Professor of Paediatrics, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, and an Honorary Professor of Paediatrics, University of Otago, New Zealand. A graduate of the University of Otago Medical School, he trained in Paediatrics and Paediatric Oncology in New Zealand and Australia and did his PhD in the Epigenetics of Wilms tumour. He has extensive experience in clinical trials and translational research, in particular hepatoblastoma. He is an executive member of SIOPEL and a member of the CHIC liver tumour consortium, SIOPEN, COG and ANZCHOG. Prior to moving to Melbourne in 2013, he was Chair of the New Zealand National Children’s Cancer Network and led the development of the New Zealand Late Effects Assessment Program and the New Zealand Children’s Cancer Registry. Dr. Sullivan has a long-term commitment to Paediatric Oncology in Developing Countries (PODC), especially in the Pacific and Oceania. Since 2006, he has been a member of the NZ Pacific Islands Working Group supporting the care of children with cancer in Fiji and the Pacific Islands, and more recently, he led the establishment of twinning programs with PNG, Timor-Leste and Laos. He is a member of the Melbourne Children’s Global Health and leads the Global Paediatric Oncology Program at the Royal Children’s Hospital. Dr. Sullivan is a member of the SIOP Advocacy Working Group, is the SIOP Liaison for the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer and Continental President for SIOP Oceania. He is currently the co-chair of the SIOP PODC Adapted Treatment Working Group, and in 2020 he was elected Co-Chair elect of SIOP-PODC.

Lindsay Frazier

Continental President North America

Dr. A. Lindsay Frazier M.D., Sc.M. is a Pediatric Oncologist at the Dana-Faber Cancer Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital, Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, also holds an appointment in epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Frazier leads the Childhood Oncology Registries project for the Global Health Initiative of the Dana-Farber Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. In 2014, population-based cancer registries were begun in Guatemala and El Salvador. These foundational projects will serve as the basis for cancer epidemiology in Central America. The expectation is that these projects will expand to the other two low-middle income countries in Central America, Nicaragua and Honduras, in 2016. Dr. Frazier also serves as the chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Massachusetts State Cancer Registry. She co-led an international consensus workshop on how to record the stage of pediatric cancer in population-based pediatric cancer registries, funded by NCI, at SIOP in Toronto in 2014. The Toronto Pediatric Cancer Staging Guidelines have been endorsed by the TNM committee, UICC, and IARC and will be published in Lancet Oncology in 2016. Dr. Frazier’s clinical expertise within pediatric oncology are germ cell tumors (GCT). Dr. Frazier has served on the steering committee of the Childrens’ Oncology Group’s (COG) germ cell committee since 1995 and assumed leadership of the committee in 2007. Her role includes oversight of all current COG protocols and the development of the strategic initiatives for future protocols across the spectrum of disease.

Pamela Kearns

Continental President Europe

Prof. Pam Kearns is Chair of Clinical Paediatric Oncology at the University of Birmingham, where is Director of the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences and Director of the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit (CRCTU). She is also an Honorary Consultant Paediatric Oncologist at Birmingham Women and Children’s Hospital. As Director of CRCTU, she leads the research strategy for UK’s largest cancer trials unit, delivering a trials portfolio of over 120 multi-centre & international cancer trials for a wide-range of cancers, occurring in all children, young people and adults across 347 centres in 21 countries. Notably, she leads the Cancer Research UK funded National Children’s Cancer Trials Teams. In 2015, she was appointed as a Senior Clinical Advisor to Cancer Research UK. In January 2019, Professor Kearns became President of the European Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP Europe). She also sits on the Boards for both the European consortium for Innovative Therapeutics for Children with Cancer (ITCC); a consortium developing early phase clinical trials for childhood cancers through International partnerships and ACCELERATE; a multi-stakeholder Paediatric Oncology Platform to improve drug development for children and adolescents with cancer. Through her leading roles within the University of Birmingham, Cancer Research UK and SIOP-Europe, she provides national and international expert advice and guidance on research governance, regulatory affairs and research ethics in relation to clinical trials. She leads the ITCC’s European consortium of academic trial sponsors from 7 countries developing and delivering a platform for efficient and accelerated delivery of academic early phase childhood cancer trials in UK & across Europe.

Guillermo Luis Chantada

Continental President Latin America

Dr. Guillermo Luis Chantada graduated from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina and completed his postgraduate training in Clinical Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology- Oncology at the Hospital JP Garrahan at Buenos Aires where he served for 31 years. He is an associate member of the Oncology Service of the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, Barcelona, Spain. He is Principal Researcher of the National Council of Research in Argentina (CONICET). He is the Scientific Director at the Pediatric Hemato-Oncology Service of the Hospital Universitario Austral, Argentina and at the Hemato-oncology service of the Hospital Pereira Rossell in Montevideo, Uruguay. His major contributions are in the area of translational research in retinoblastoma where he worked the identification of innovative treatments, the characteristics of this tumor in developing countries and in depicting its mechanisms of molecular dissemination. He leads the Latin American treatment protocol at the Grupo de America Latina de Oncologia Pediatrica (GALOP) where is member of the Board. He serves as Coordinator of the European Retinoblastoma Group (EURbG). He leads the development of an anti-idiotype vaccine for neuroblastoma in a Latin American protocol. Other areas of interest include pediatric lymphomas and histiocytosis. He is Member of the St Jude Global Pediatric Medicine Department where he is Editor in Chief of Oncopedia at the Cure4kids portal. He is member of the Board at the Latin American Society of Pediatric Oncology (SLAOP).

Laila Hessissen

Continental President Africa

Laila Hessissen is a Professor of Pediatrics in the Medical School of Rabat, Morocco, where she has been a faculty member since 2000. She also works as a Pediatric Hematology Oncologist at the Pediatric Hematology Oncology Centre of Rabat. Laila received her Pediatric Oncology University Diploma from the Paris-Sud University in France in 2000. Laila is the former President of the Moroccan Society of Pediatric Oncology Hematology, Vice General Secretary of the French-African Group of Pediatric Oncology (GFAOP), and she is the Continental President of SIOP-Africa. Since 2014, Laila has been involved in the creation and supervision of a Certified Diploma of Pediatric Oncology for clinicians in French-Speaking African Countries. This program takes place at the Mohammed 5 University of Rabat and is recognized by the Paris-Sud University in France. Through this program, she has developed the e-GFAOP e-learning platform for participants in the diploma program as well as a network of practical training sites. She is interested in pediatric brain tumors, genetic predisposition, and metronomic chemotherapy.

Michael Sullivan

Continental President Oceania

Michael Sullivan is a Paediatric Oncologist and Neuro-Oncologist in the Children’s Cancer Centre, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, a Professor of Paediatrics, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, and an Honorary Professor of Paediatrics, University of Otago, New Zealand. A graduate of the University of Otago Medical School, he trained in Paediatrics and Paediatric Oncology in New Zealand and Australia and did his PhD in the Epigenetics of Wilms tumour. He has extensive experience in clinical trials and translational research, in particular hepatoblastoma. He is an executive member of SIOPEL and a member of the CHIC liver tumour consortium, SIOPEN, COG and ANZCHOG. Prior to moving to Melbourne in 2013, he was Chair of the New Zealand National Children’s Cancer Network and led the development of the New Zealand Late Effects Assessment Program and the New Zealand Children’s Cancer Registry. Dr. Sullivan has a long-term commitment to Paediatric Oncology in Developing Countries (PODC), especially in the Pacific and Oceania. Since 2006, he has been a member of the NZ Pacific Islands Working Group supporting the care of children with cancer in Fiji and the Pacific Islands, and more recently, he led the establishment of twinning programs with PNG, Timor-Leste and Laos. He is a member of the Melbourne Children’s Global Health and leads the Global Paediatric Oncology Program at the Royal Children’s Hospital. Dr. Sullivan is a member of the SIOP Advocacy Working Group, is the SIOP Liaison for the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer and Continental President for SIOP Oceania. He is currently the co-chair of the SIOP PODC Adapted Treatment Working Group, and in 2020 he was elected Co-Chair elect of SIOP-PODC.

Rashmi Dalvi

Continental President Asia

Rashmi Dalvi MD DCH is presently MUHS Professor and Head, Department of Pediatrics & Pediatric Hematology Oncology, at the Bombay Hospital Institute of Medical Sciences & Visiting Consultant at NH-SRCC Children’s hospital and PHO-BMT Department of LTMG Medical College Hospital, in Mumbai. An alumnus of Seth GS Medical College/KEM Hospital, she trained in PHO In India (1988), and at the Children’s Hospitals of Michigan (1996) & Philadelphia (UICC-ICRETT 2001). She was among the earliest to develop and promote PHO subspecialty in India, and has been involved in academics & clinical practice in PHO & Immunology for over 30 years, as university faculty & previously at BJ Wadia Hospital for Children, with numerous publications & presentations to her credit. She has special interest in Lymphomas, Nutrition & Supportive care, Registries, Histiocytic disorders & HLH. She has been actively involved with SIOP & the Pediatric Oncology in Developing Countries Committee since 1992; including as founder member of the SIOP-India project, “NTP-PPO” addressing Early Diagnosis & Treatment Abandonment in children with cancer. She has held various positions including, Chair of National PHO Society, India(2009-12), Chair, SIOP-PODC Committee on Education & Training(2010-13), Chair-Coordinator NTP-PPO (2007-2012), LOC member for SIOP Asia 2002, Delhi & SIOP 2007, Mumbai, Presently she is Chair of the SIOP Asia Conference, Mumbai 2020, and Member, ICON Ethics Committee & Stem Cell Committee, King Edward Memorial Hospital.