Alejandro is a talented clinical and research scientist in paediatric haematology/oncology based in Boston. We are fortunate that as one of our Medical Ambassadors he is able to devote some of his time to our project in Colombia and his involvement has been instrumental in developing a strong twinning partnership between the Dana-Farber/Children’s Hospital Cancer Centre in Boston and the Instituto Nacional de Cancerlogia in Bogota, Colombia.  

He studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine before completing a fellowship in paediatric haematology/oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children’s Hospital Boston. He now combines clinical work and research at Dana-Farber/Children’s Hospital Cancer Center. His research has focused on unravelling the molecular pathways that control the development of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia – a form of cancer seen predominantly in children and adolescents, with the goal of developing more effective and less toxic therapy. He is also involved with the supervision and teaching of paediatric haematology/oncology fellows, paediatric residents and medical students at Children’s Hospital Boston, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Harvard Medical School, and he is an author of numerous peer-reviewed publications in academic journals.

Alejandro is working closely with Dr Martha Vizcaino, project leader at the Instituto Nacional de Cancerlogia (INC) in Bogota, to improve survival rates for children and adolescents with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.  

“Our aim is to improve the care of some of the poorest children in Bogota and the surrounding rural area who are diagnosed with cancer.  Our initial efforts have focused on acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), which is the most common cancer of childhood, because we know most children with ALL can be cured if modern treatment regimens can be successfully delivered.  By improving treatment for patients with ALL, we hope to improve survival rates for all cancers in the long run and develop the INC as a model programme for paediatric oncology care in Colombia.”

The project at the INC is a five year project which started in 2009 and the work of Alejandro, Martha and their colleagues is already showing significant progress with survival rates for ALL on target to double by 2013.

Dr Alejandro Gutierrez