On Friday, November 3, Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario celebrated the recipients of the 2023 POGO Recognition Awards at a Celebratory Dinner. Established in 1999, the awards acknowledge significant contributions of Ontarians to the field of childhood cancer care in Ontario and beyond. Award recipients work in POGO partner hospitals and demonstrate POGO’s core values of partnership, collaboration and excellence. Congratulations to the 2023 recipients! 

POGO Champion Award 
The POGO Champion Award acknowledges excellence, leadership, innovation and collaboration in the field of childhood cancer care by an individual over the course of a career. Recipients have a strong history of participating in POGO initiatives, programs or services in a POGO partner hospital. They have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to achieving the best childhood cancer care system through their work within Ontario, for the benefit of children and youth with cancer, survivors, and/or their families in Ontario or beyond.  

Elizabeth Cairney, MD, FRCPC 
Medical Director, Pediatric Oncology AfterCare Clinic, Children’s Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre 
In recognition of her career devotion to pediatric oncology, exceptional leadership, and commitment to excellence and quality care that has benefited patients and families, those she mentors and all with whom she collaborates, in Ontario and beyond.

POGO Visionary Award  
The POGO Visionary Award acknowledges an individual or team for an outstanding specific/single contribution to advancing the childhood cancer care system in Ontario for the benefit of children and youth with cancer, survivors, and/or their families. Recipients are agents of change whose work, as part of a POGO initiative, program or service in a POGO partner hospital, exemplifies the visionary efforts that led to POGO’s creation in 1983.  

Paul Nathan, MD, MSc, FRCPC 
Head, Solid Tumour Section & Director, AfterCare Program, The Hospital for Sick Children 
In recognition of his outstanding contributions to clinical research, teaching and program development in the field of childhood cancer survivorship, which have had sustained impact in Ontario and beyond. 

Tejinder (TJ) Bains, BSc (Pharm), ACPR 
Oncology Pharmacist, Oncology Pharmacy Team Lead and Beacon Business Systems Analyst, CHEO 
In recognition of her exemplary contributions, resourcefulness and tireless dedication to the care of childhood cancer patients, in Ontario and beyond.  

POGO Nursing Leadership Award  
The POGO Nursing Leadership Award recognizes an individual in the field of pediatric oncology nursing who demonstrates passion, vision and energy for childhood cancer care, and a commitment to a patient-family-survivor-centred approach. Recipients show leadership in ensuring the nursing perspective informs various aspects of childhood cancer care, which may include service delivery, system planning, quality improvement, knowledge transfer, professional development and/or research. Recipients have participated in POGO initiatives, programs or services, and/or work in a POGO partner hospital. They are well respected by hospital healthcare teams, patients, families, survivors and administrative leaders. 

Vicky Wilton, RN, BPHE 
POGO Interlink Nurse, Northeast Cancer Centre, Health Sciences North 
In recognition of her role as an outstanding leader, mentor, advocate, clinician and partner in the evidenced-based nursing care of those impacted by childhood cancer, throughout all stages of their journey, in Northern Ontario, and beyond. 

POGO Early Career Professional 
Recognizes an early-career professional of any discipline who has demonstrated outstanding dedication, commitment and leadership as part of a multidisciplinary team caring for children and youth with cancer, survivors, and/or their families. Recipients work in a POGO partner hospital and go above and beyond to exemplify POGO’s commitment to achieving an excellent childhood cancer care system by contributing their expertise in a voluntary capacity. 

Jennifer Seelisch, MD, MSc, FRCPC (Pediatric Hematology/Oncology) 
Director, Pediatric Undergraduate Medical Education, Children’s Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre 
In recognition of her outstanding commitment and contributions to childhood cancer care that have positioned her as an emerging thought leader in pediatric oncology, in Ontario and beyond. 

POGO Community Partner Impact  
Recognizes outstanding philanthropic contributions to advance POGO’s mission and vision. Recipients demonstrate a commitment to charitable responsibility and their altruism and leadership may have inspired others to give back to POGO. 

Kate, Jack & Meghan Beswick 
In recognition of their outstanding and steadfast philanthropic leadership that has inspired a new generation of donors, connections and community in support of POGO’s mission and childhood cancer care.  

“The 2023 POGO Recognition Awards is a very important night to the community of pediatric oncology. For the Children’s Hospital, LHSC team tonight is especially significant. Dr. Cairney was my mentor as a medical student. To have her receive the POGO Champion Award, truly a lifetime achievement award, with me as the Division Lead, on the same night I am honored to be presenting an Early Career Professional Award to Dr. Jennifer Seelisch is so very humbling. The London Children’s Hospital team is just so proud.”

Dr. Alexandra Zorzi, Children’s Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre

In 2023, rather than homing in on one specific disease group, we took the opportunity to look broadly at POGO’s 40-year history, and the significant changes in childhood cancer care over four decades. With this broad appeal, more than 215 participants joined the POGO Symposium with representation from nursing, pharmacy, physicians, students, government, allied health and community supporters; a testament to the true team effort required to care for our patients.  

Dr. Mark Greenberg, POGO co-founder, opened the two-day event by guiding us from POGO’s inception and the many challenges faced, and the incredible successes along the way, as well as the important work that remains to be done. It was clear that POGO’s early achievements required tremendous persistence, tenacity and optimism by the founders, and led to POGO becoming a MOH-funded contributor to the childhood cancer care system. Our respective institutions and the children of this province are so fortunate for the work that has gone into creating and building POGO from the ground up and the vast improvements in childhood cancer care that POGO has facilitated.  

A Comprehensive Approach to Childhood Cancer Care 

One of the loudest themes that reverberated through this year’s event was the recognition that the best possible cancer care system moving forward will take a holistic approach to treating the child and supporting the family.  

We heard about inspiring advances in therapeutics and how novel drugs such as blinatumomab, and entirely new classes of drugs, are showing promise to cure previously incurable cancers. Across all sessions, led by national and international experts, we reflected on improvements in outcomes and strategies for the future across many forms of childhood cancer, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia, neuroblastoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and solid tumours. Taking a step further into the future, Drs. Malkin and Shlien described incredible new technologies that bring together advances in molecular genetics and artificial intelligence, holding the promise to better elucidate the biological differences in seemingly similar tumours and more accurately target treatment to specific biological subtypes. 

However, we also had the opportunity to acknowledge that cancer-directed therapy is not the totality of childhood cancer care, and that there are critical elements of high-quality treatment whose value is too often under-appreciated. Dr. Bob Phillips took us on an adventure through the world of supportive care and strategies for implementing clinical practice guidelines, POGO’s included. Dr. Kira Bona discussed the often overlooked and vital need to recognize and intervene on health disparities affecting our patients and their families. Food insecurity and material deprivation can have as big an impact on treatment outcome as many of the conventional prognostic factors we use routinely in clinical practice. Dr. Fiona Schulte spoke about the imperative need to provide psychosocial supports and measurable interventions for our patients, and Maria Talotta shared new opportunities for mental health supports for our patients and their families through Ontario’s Youth Wellness Hubs. As adverse social determinants of health become increasingly prevalent in Canadian society, it is more urgent than ever that we develop methods and infrastructure to reduce their impact on children with cancer. 

We must also keep at the forefront of our minds that cure is not where our patients’ cancer journey ends. Many patients are left with late effects, and excellent survivorship care is paramount. Dr. Jennia Michaeli and Stacy Whiteside brought light to the importance of establishing fertility preservation for our patient population as standard of care. Finally, we heard through multiple sessions the inherent value in ensuring that our patients have a voice in their own decision making, and how best to enable this.   

Childhood Cancer Survivors Thriving in the Medical Field 

We had the pleasure of watching several digital stories from childhood cancer survivors who shared pieces of their journey. Each of these incredible individuals also shared how they were inspired by members of their care team to work in health care, in such roles as a nurse, physician, child life specialist, and program assistant. These stories remind us about the importance of the role we, as care providers, each play in the lives of our young patients.  

The Path Ahead  

We had the incredible opportunity to hear from a diverse panel about where the next healthcare dollars should be spent in improving care. We heard about the importance of integrating health disparities studies and interventions into our frontline trials, the need for improved psychosocial supports for patients and families, and the future potential of gene sequencing for both early detection and targeted therapy in childhood cancer. Chantelle Bacon and Iain Macri of Fight Like Mason Foundation and Mason’s parents, emphasized the need to provide education and support to physicians in recognizing red flags to enable earlier suspicion and diagnoses of childhood cancers. At the end, it was clear that a comprehensive approach that encompasses all of these elements is imperative. 

POGO has shown us over 40 years that we are better together and that our collaboration and collegiality is what builds our successes. Cheers to 40 years of POGO and to the successes to come! 

By Dr. Jennifer Seelisch, Director, Pediatric Undergraduate Medical Education, Children’s Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre. Dr. Seelisch was the 2023 recipient of the inaugural POGO Early Career Professional Award. 

POGO Pre-Symposium Nursing Seminar Amplifies Nursing Perspective on Childhood Cancer Care  

On Thursday, November 2, POGO’s 2023 Pre-Symposium Nursing Day presented a rich offering of niche programming that attracted more than 130 nurses and other allied healthcare professionals from across Canada.  

Dr. Kitty Montgomery set the stage by discussing Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs), a theme that resonated throughout the entire Symposium. She highlighted how nurses are uniquely positioned to help children voice their symptoms, which is critical to patient-centred care.  In her presentation on bioethics at the bedside, Dr. Kim Pyke-Grimm brought the issue of moral distress to the forefront and provided examples of ethics liaison programs.  

We heard from many of Ontario’s skilled nurse practitioners as they shared their knowledge and leadership such areas as late effects of neuroblastoma, skin care for patients receiving MEK inhibitors, and providing care with blinatumomab. 

The importance of supportive care was a central theme of the day. Dr. Lindsay Jibb shared her findings from her study on “Parental Distress and Trauma in Parents of Children Diagnosed with ALL.” We were also transported into the world of preventing and managing mucositis and how nursing can play a role in implementing clinical practice guidelines. We learned about the role that nurses play in providing care and discussing sensitive topics when caring for adolescent and young adult cancer patients and survivors, and we explored essential knowledge and skills to bring into practice when caring for children with cancer and autism.  

Nurses comprise the highest number of healthcare professionals working in pediatric oncology, and this day was important in bringing these clinicians together from across Ontario and beyond to share and discuss nursing practice in caring for patients and families faced with a childhood cancer diagnosis.