About

Lee Dupuis

Co-director

Lee is an Associate Scientist, Research Institute, Health Clinician Scientist, Department of Pharmacy, and a Clinical Pharmacist, Haematology/Oncology/Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Toronto and Associate Professor at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto.

Lee has acted as chair for several supportive care clinical practice guideline panels and as a panel member for many others.  She is the chair of the Supportive Care Guideline sub-Committee, Children’s Oncology Group, chair of the Supportive Care Committee of the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario and founder and co-director of the iPOG Network.

Wim Tissing

Co-director

Wim Tissing is pediatric oncologist and professor of supportive care in childhood oncology, and works in both the Princess Maxima Center for pediatric oncology in Utrecht and the University Medical Center Groningen, both in the Netherlands. In the UMCG he chairs the dept of pediatric oncology / hematology and immunology. In the Princess Máxima Center he chairs the supportive care group, which involves both patient care and research.

After his PhD in 2006 he started his translational research line on Supportive care in pediatric oncology in Groningen, and he continues this work in Utrecht. His research focuses on gastro-intestinal mucositis (UMCG) and on infections and nutrition / motion in the Princess Máxima Center. Lastly, he translates results from research into clinical practice using Clinical Practice Guidelines He (has) supervises (-ed) 24 PhD students on different projects and has published over 180 papers in international, peer reviewed journals.

He is co-chair of the IPOG network together with Lee Dupuis

Adam Esbenshade

SIOP Representative

Dr. Esbenshade is a pediatric Neuro-oncologist and Professor of Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN (USA) and holds the John N. Lukens Jr. Research Chair in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology. He is the Chair of the Children’s Oncology Group Young Investigators Committee and the Vice Chair of the COG Cancer Control and Supportive Care Committee. He also serves as Secretary of the SIOP North American Branch.

Bob Phillips

CCLG Representative

Bob is a Senior Clinical Academic at CRD, and an Honorary Consultant in Paediatric / Teenage-Young Adult Oncology at Leeds Children’s Hospital. His main areas of work are in the development of individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis, supportive care management, and the development of skills in appraisal and translation of clinical research in practice. He is the lead of the PICNICC collaboration, “Predicting Infectious ComplicatioNs In Children with Cancer” which was formed by engaging international clinical and methodological experts, parent representatives and healthcare researchers to investigate primarily the patterns of risk in febrile neutropenia. The PICNICC collaboration consists of 22 different study groups from 15 countries and is actively engaged in involving new members from around the world to further develop its aims. This work develops the CRD research themes of methodological improvement in IPD meta-analysis and in improving outcomes in cancer medicine, and capacity building and translation of research in the NHS.

Bob has worked extensively to promote and teach evidence-based practice with the Centre for Evidence-based Medicine in Oxford, UK, and also the Centre for Evidence-based Child Health (Institute of Child Health, London, UK). He edits the evidence-based practice sections of the Archives of Diseases in Childhood, and is an associate editor of the journal. He has lectured in the UK, Europe, North America, Australia and the Nordic Countries on the subject of evidence-based practice, and has written widely on this.

Bob was the Clinical Lead for the NICE Guideline (CG151) on the management of neutropenic sepsis. In addition to the work in febrile neutropenia, he has undertaken many systematic reviews assessing the quality of evidence underlying interventions to ameliorate the side-effects of cancer treatments in childhood and is actively involved with developing and implementing high-quality clinical practice guidelines with the IPOG group. This includes Cochrane systematic reviews of the treatment of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, the treatment of constipation, nutritional support, and risk stratification in nephropathy. He works with the Cochrane Child Health field, the PRISMA-IPD group, and the Martin House Research Centre which encourages the development of high-quality health research with children and young people with life-limiting conditions.

Carol Digout

APPHON Representative

Carol is the Executive Director for the Atlantic Provincies Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Network (APPHON). Part of their mandate is to create/adopt/adapt guidelines and their implementation  for the 4 Atlantic Canadian Provinces. Carol has been involved with guidelines since starting her career in 2005. She was a member of the Cancer Care Nova Scotia Guideline Committee, C17 Guideline Committee and has been a member of the  iPOG Network for the past 3 years. Carol took a year off to work as the Atlantic Canada Guideline Coordinator for the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer and help trial the Can-Adapte. Carol’s main interest now lies in methodology, implementation and guideline adherence.

Cyril Lervat

SFCE Representative

Dr Cyril Lervat is a pediatric oncologist at Lille. He is the head of the French Pediatric Oncologic Supportive Care Committee and an active member of the French oncologic pain committee.

Gargi Das

INPHOG Representative

Gargi is a pediatric oncologist with clinical and research interests in acute leukemias, brain tumors, and pediatric sarcomas, as well as supportive care and late effects and survivorship of childhood cancer. She completed her pediatric oncology training at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, after obtaining her MD in Pediatrics from the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh.
She currently serves as Chair of the INPHOG Supportive Care Group, where she works with pediatric oncology centers across India to strengthen supportive care practices for children undergoing cancer treatment. In this role, she is involved in developing collaborative research initiatives, facilitating consensus recommendations, and promoting the implementation of evidence-based supportive care strategies across diverse healthcare settings.
Her research focuses on supportive care in pediatric oncology and the adaptation of evidence-based cancer care practices for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). She has contributed to multicentre studies aimed at improving supportive care and survivorship outcomes for children with cancer. Her work has explored metabolic and nutritional complications among survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia, including studies on sarcopenic obesity and adipokines as biomarkers of metabolic risk. She has also contributed to research on neurocognitive outcomes in childhood leukemia survivors, highlighting the long-term impact of therapy in LMIC settings.
In addition to survivorship research, Gargi has been involved in studies addressing treatment outcomes and supportive care strategies in pediatric oncology, including work on infection management, antibiotic stewardship, transplantation outcomes, and multidisciplinary care of pediatric solid tumors. She has authored peer-reviewed publications in international journals and collaborates with national and international pediatric oncology networks to advance supportive care research and clinical practice.
Through her clinical work, research collaborations, and leadership within INPHOG, she aims to improve treatment safety, quality of life, and long-term outcomes for children and adolescents with cancer, particularly in resource-limited settings.

Jason L. Freedman

MASCC Representative

Jason L. Freedman, MD, MSCE is a Board Certified Pediatric Oncologist who graduated with honors from Cornell University and received his medical degree Magna Cum Laude from Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York. Dr. Freedman completed his residency in Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of NY-Presbyterian (Columbia University) and was chosen to serve as Pediatric Chief Resident thereafter. He completed fellowship training in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), during which time he earned a Masters of Science in Clinical Epidemiology (MSCE) from the University of Pennsylvania (PENN). Dr. Freedman has received numerous awards and honors including induction into the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society, and nominations into the President’s Circle of Excellence and Attending of the Year at the Children’s Hospital of NY-Presbyterian. During fellowship at CHOP, he was the recipient of the William Potash Fellow Teacher of the Year for his commitment to resident education and clinical excellence. As an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at PENN/CHOP, he has earned a Distinguished Teaching Award and was selected for the early career faculty honor roll several years in a row. Dr. Freedman serves as the Inpatient Medical Director of Oncology/Stem Cell Transplant at CHOP. His clinical focus is blood and marrow transplantation. He has a particular interest in epidemiologic and translational research within pediatric supportive oncology and aims to advance the understanding and treatment of symptoms, infections, and organ toxicities in pediatric cancer and hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) patients. Dr. Freedman serves on several committees within the Children’s Oncology Group and is the Chair of the Pediatric Study Group within MASCC (Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer). He is also the PI/Co-PI of collaborative institutional trials focused on supportive care and organ toxicity in HSCT. Dr. Freedman has authored many textbook chapters and peer-reviewed articles on the supportive care of children with cancer and has contributed to the development of clinical guidelines to standardize management of symptoms and toxicities associated with cancer therapy and stem cell transplant. Dr. Freedman is also a leader in clinical quality and process improvement, and optimization of clinical operations.

Jessica Bate

CCLG Representative

Jessica Bate is a Consultant Paediatric Oncologist working at Southampton Children’s Hospital, UK. She is the Co-Chair of the UK Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG) Supportive Care Group. She has a strong interest in supportive care research particularly preventable infections in children with cancer for which she was awarded a PhD from the University of Cambridge.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, she has been the CCLG lead for COVID-19 guidance for professionals and families and an advisor to the UK Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. She is also co-leads the Vaccine Working Group for Paediatric Oncology collaboration between St Jude Chldren’s Research Hospital and SIOP (International Society of Paediatric Oncology). She is currently planning a national COVID-19 vaccine immune response study for children and young adults with cancer.
Jessica is also a member of the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit Oncology Kids in Europe Research Group (POKER) group and the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Cancer and Nutrition Collaborative Children and Teenage/Young Adult Workstream.

Joan O’Hanlon-Curry

APHON Representative

Dr. Joan O’Hanlon Curry is a nationally recognized nursing leader with extensive expertise in pediatric hematology-oncology, executive nursing leadership, and nursing advocacy. She recently joined Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as the Senior Director of Nursing, Inpatient Oncology. She previously served as the Project Director in the Office of the Chief Nursing Officer at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where she oversaw strategic nursing initiatives focused on quality, engagement, and organizational excellence. Joan has over two decades of progressive leadership experience across pediatric and adult oncology settings at leading academic medical centers. She has presented nationally and internationally on a wide variety of nursing leadership, advocacy, and pediatric oncology topics. She is a past President of the Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses (APHON) and a Fellow of APHON, the American Academy of Nursing, and the American Organization for Nursing Leadership. She also serves as a Nurse Auditor for the Children’s Oncology Group, supporting research compliance and quality in pediatric oncology clinical trials. Joan holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice from Case Western Reserve University, an MS as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner from Columbia University, and a BSN from Pace University.

Joel Thompson

COG Representative

Joel is a pediatric oncologist at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, MO (USA) and currently sits on the Children’s Oncology Group Supportive Care Guideline sub-Committee. He is interested in the implementation of clinical practice guidelines and in their use as metrics for quality improvement work in pediatric oncology.

Lillian Sung

POGO Representative

Dr. Lillian Sung is a Professor and Senior Scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is certified in the specialties of pediatrics, infectious diseases, hematology and clinical investigation. She completed a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Toronto. She has a clinical research program focused on improving supportive care for children with cancer. Her methodological focus is on randomized and observational trials, meta-analysis, and patient-reported outcomes. She holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Pediatric Oncology Supportive Care, and she is the principal investigator on multiple operating grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Maya Prasad

INPHOG Representative

Maya is a pediatric oncologist in Mumbai, India, and her work focuses on paediatric solid tumours (including brain tumors), supportive care and childhood cancer survivorship. Her research interests in supportive care have included clinical implications of nutrition in paediatric oncology in LMICs and survivorship.
She has held leadership positions in supportive care including past co-chair of the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) nutrition network, current steering group member of the SIOP supportive care network, past chair of the Indian Paediatric Haematology Oncology Group (INPHOG) Supportive Care subcommittee, and current Co-chair of the Indian Childhood Cancer Initiative (ICCI) Supportive Care taskforce. In these roles, Dr Prasad has help facilitate multinational and multicentric collaboration in supportive care and nutrition research, education and clinical services.
She has also been actively involved in several supportive care guideline development groups including the ARIA supportive care nutrition guidelines.

Michael Sullivan

SIOP Representative

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 SIOP Global Health, 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 former Continental President for SIOP Oceania. He is currently the co-chair of the SIOP Global Health Adapted Treatment Working Group, and in 2020 he was elected Co-Chair of SIOP Global Health.

Paula Robinson

POGO Representative

Paula is a Guideline Methodologist and Program Manager with the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario, Canada. Paula has served as a guideline methodologist on many clinical practice guideline panels as well as other committees focused on evidence-based supportive care including the Supportive Care Guideline sub-Committee, Children’s Oncology Group.

Séverine Bouttefroy

SFCE Representative

Séverine is a pédiatrician from the hematological and oncological pediatric homecare unit in Lyon, France. She is also involved in the supportive care group of the hospital (particularly for nutrition and pain) and of the French Society of Paediatric cancers (Société Française des Cancers de l’Enfant, SFCE). She joined the iPOG network in 2021

Shirley Behm

APHON Representative

Shirley Behm completed her Family Nurse Practitioner program at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania, the USA, and Bachelor of Science at the University of Costa Rica in Central America, Member of the APHON Global Outreach program. Member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. She enjoys medical mission trips and serving underserved populations in the USA, Caribbean, Central, and South America. Currently employed at Geisinger Medical Center, Cancer Institute in rural Pennsylvania

Yin Ting Cheung

MASCC Representative

Yin Ting Cheung is an Associate Professor and Associate Director (Research) at the School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is a pharmacist and pharmacoepidemiologist in cancer supportive care and integrative oncology. Her research involves characterizing the burden of late effects in young survivors of cancer, with a specific focus on long-term cognitive and behavioral outcomes. Her research team also utilizes population-based real-world data to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of traditional, complementary, and integrative medicines (TCIM) in patients with cancer. This research program has led to the development of educational initiatives to promote the safe use of TCIM in children, adolescents and young adults with cancer in Hong Kong and mainland China. Yin Ting serves as the Vice-Chair of the Pediatric Study Group of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC).