our research partners

Tom Davidson, MD

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Tom Davidson’s Research
Overview

Tom Davidson, MD, is a pediatric neuro-oncologist in the Cancer and Blood Disease Institute at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Dr. Davidson specializes in diagnosing and caring for children and young adults with central nervous system tumors. Her primary research focus is on developing clinical trials to treat children and young adults diagnosed with high-grade glioma and other malignant tumors. She is exploring novel immunotherapeutic strategies to treat this young population. In addition, Dr. Davidson studies cancer disparities and cancer predisposition, with the goal of improving long-term survival and quality of life for patients.

our research partners

Shahab Asgharzadeh, MD

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Shahab Asgharzadeh’s Research
Overview

Shahab Asgharzadeh, MD, is a pediatric oncologist in the Cancer and Blood Disease Institute at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Dr. Asgharzadeh’s research is directed toward understanding the role of the tumor microenvironment in the biology of peripheral and central nervous system tumors, focusing on high-risk neuroblastomas and brain tumors including glioblastoma. His research using next generation sequencing technologies and imaging technologies has identified subgroups of these tumors with unique microenvironments.

His group’s identification of tumor-associated macrophages in neuroblastomas has helped to better understand the role of the immune system in the biology of these tumors. These insights are critical and led to development of novel immunotherapeutic and CAR-T cell therapies in the treatment of childhood brain tumors.

About The Center

For more than six decades the Cancer and Blood Disease Institute at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has been committed to increasing cure rates and improving quality of survival for children, adolescents and young adults through outstanding clinical care, innovative research, academic excellence and global leadership. The Institute—one of the largest and highest-ranked pediatric hematology, oncology, and transplantation and cellular therapy programs in the U.S. The Cancer and Blood Disease Institute has been ranked among the top pediatric cancer programs in the country by U.S. News & World Report every year since the rankings were launched in 2008.

The Institute’s Clinical Trials Program is one of the nation’s largest devoted to children with cancer and blood disorders and is home to multiple leading international pediatric consortia, including Children’s Hospital Acquired Thrombosis Network (CHAT), New Approaches to Neuroblastoma Therapy (NANT) and Therapeutic Advances in Childhood Leukemia & Lymphoma (TACL), and is a member of 20 major clinical trials consortia.