Dr. Alba Fernández receives an extension of the ASPANOA fellowship

The Association of Parents of Children with Cancer of Aragon (ASPANOA) grants an extension of the postdoctoral fellowship that it granted last year to Dr. Alba Fernández, through the program for training in Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at the Vall d'Hebron Hospital. Thanks to this project, coordinated by Dr. Lucas Moreno, Dr. Fernández will be able to do another training stay at the hospital, which will help her to train in research, care and humanization in pediatric oncology and hematology.

The doctor herself points out that “it is a training program in Oncology and Hematology, so patient care is the main part of my work. Activity that includes the study and updating of pediatric oncological and hematological pathologies”. “Within the field of research, I have carried out a review of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, carrying out a study of the cases diagnosed in Vall d'Hebron in recent years. It is a rare, complex and heterogeneous pathology of which we still have a lot to know. On the other hand, I have been working on the creation of clinical protocols within the same Oncology and Hematology service”, explains Dr. Fernández.

ASPANOA was born in 1988 as an association focused on helping children with cancer, supporting families and promoting research. In addition, it offers training projects to improve the quality of care in this field, such as that of Dr. Alba Fernández, which once again has an endowment of 30,000 euros.

“The six-month extension that ASPANOA has granted me is a wonderful opportunity to continue my training in the field of Oncology and Hematology. I am very grateful to the association, which does a great job facilitating that professionals can be comprehensively trained in these pediatric disciplines, which in the long run translates into an improvement in the care and treatment of pediatric patients”, concludes the doctor.

Vall d'Hebron, a reference for cancer treatment in children and adolescents

The Vall d'Hebron Pediatric Oncology and Hematology Service is, according to data from the Spanish Registry of Childhood Tumors (RETI), one of the centres that treats the most children and adolescents in the State, and is a reference centre for transplantation of hematopoietic progenitors or stem cells, with more than 1,300 transplants performed, and other tumors such as sarcomas and neuroblastomas.