Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona

SJD Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona is a new monographic centre for the benefit of children and adolescents with cancer and their families. The facility brings together the healthcare services aimed at patients with developmental cancer in one single place, as well as spaces dedicated to research. The aim is to treat a large volume of patients more effectively, efficiently and adequately, more than 400 new patients per year, with the highly specialised team of the SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital Oncology Department.

Below you can find more information related to the centre's strategy and activity through its Strategic Plan 2023-2027.

Precision diagnosis

We have innovative diagnostic techniques that allow us to identify therapeutic targets and offer personalised therapies.

• Molecular diagnosis: We have a Molecular Oncology Laboratory specialising in the genetic characterisation of solid tumours which allows us to offer patients a more personalised and appropriate treatment based on the genetic abnormalities of their tumour.
• Diagnostic imaging: Our Diagnostic Imaging Service  is specialised in the study of paediatric oncological imaging biomarkers that enable us to have non-invasive anatomical, metabolic and functional  information, thus increasing the precision of the initial diagnosis while also establishing patient prognosis and follow-up. We also have intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging in our surgical block that allows us to improve surgical precision and safety.
• Nuclear medicine: This allows us to perform very important diagnostic tests in a set of paediatric oncological diseases. It is applied for the detection and determination of the extent of the disease, for monitoring or for the detection of relapses. Moreover, not only is it useful for diagnostic purposes, but it is also useful in the treatment of certain solid tumours.

Innovative research and methods

More than 50 professionals, including researchers and technicians, work in this laboratory, which contains a bank of pediatric tumours of high value for research and experimentation. In the laboratory, molecular techniques and genomic technology are also applied, which allow the analysis of the gene expression of tumours and open new options in the fields of patient diagnosis and prognosis.

With a research team which is fully integrated with the healthcare team, our cutting-edge research, clinical trials and treatments allow our specialists to provide the safest and most effective care possible.

What characterises our research

• Pre-clinical models: Patient samples are processed in the laboratory to evaluate the efficacy and safety of new treatments, before the clinical phase.
• Pediatric tumour bank: This is a key piece in our research, since the study of patients' tumours is the first step to achieving results.
• Clinical Trials Unit: We have the first Clinical Trials Unit in Spain that centers on paediatrics, with a substantial volume of patients and trials.

Training

The oncology training that we offer is one of the SJD Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona's strategic tools. Our objective is to optimise the scientific and personal development of the professionals who care for children and adolescents with cancer.

• Seminars and courses: We offer continuing education courses in cancer for physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals.
• Pre-graduate training: We are involved with the pre-graduate training of medical students from the Universitat de Barcelona and with nursing students.
• Post-graduate training: Our team oversees oncology training for paediatric and paediatric nursing residents.
• Paediatric oncology grant programme: the paediatric cancer and development grant programme is well consolidated and is our country's oldest. The programme runs for three years, in the course of which the research assistants are trained in the different clinical and research aspects of our sub-speciality.
• Online telematic initiatives: Online training has made it possible to move continuing education to platforms such as TELEO (Tele-education in Paediatric Oncology), which supports and bolsters local training programmes for specialists in Latin America, particularly in medium-to-low income countries in which such training was hitherto impossible.

SJD Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona in solidarity with everyone

And we cannot forget that SJD Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona has become a reality thanks to the support of all the people, companies and institutions that help us financially in this great project, from the founding donors to the solidarity initiatives by hundreds of families and associations.

Through the For the Brave initiative, we have managed to get to this point and we continue to work to cure more cases of childhood cancer that currently have no cure, improve treatments and minimise the sequelae that currently occur and reduce the emotional impact on children and families. In addition, our objective is to facilitate access to our centre for children from developing countries, as well as to train professionals and cooperate with hospitals in those countries so that they can improve their patient care.