Assistant Professor of Pediatrics Harvard Medical School

Pediatrician Pediatrics-Pediatric Hematology Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital

Physician Investigator (Cl) Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Mass General Research Institute

MD Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth 1992

MSc 1998

burkitt lymphoma; hematologic diseases; hodgkin disease; lymphatic diseases; neutropenia; orbital neoplasms; oropharyngeal neoplasms; pediatric oncology; precursor cell lymphoblastic leukemia-lymphoma; proton beam therapy; radiation therapy; rhabdomyosarcoma; rhabdomyosarcoma embryonal

Alison Friedmann, MD has authored and reviewed many scholarly articles and book chapters in the area of childhood cancer.

Her major research interests include:

1) Supportive care: Using an extensive blood bank database, she examined the importance of various risk factors in predicting bleeding in patients with low platelet counts to guide decisions around the use of platelet transfusion.

At Mass General, she developed a study for pediatric oncology patients with fever and neutropenia, the most common reason for unplanned hospitalization. The study identified patients at low risk of serious complications and provided an option for early discharge to a home antibiotic regimen.

This strategy proved to be safe and greatly preferred by families. Building on this work, she successfully implemented a new clinical pathway for the outpatient management of low-risk fever and neutropenia, improving quality of life and reducing hospital stays.

2) Hematologic Malignancies: As a member of the Children's Oncology Group ALL committee, she helped coordinate a nationwide clinical trial for standard risk ALL, AALL0331, a trial that produced excellent outcomes while reducing therapy for the most favorable patients.

She has also been a member of the St. Jude Pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma consortium, publishing the results of a major clinical trial in intermediate risk patients, and completing a project looking at the outcome of patients who suffer a relapse to focus on rational, optimal surveillance after treatment.

3) Radiation, Sarcomas, and Late Effects: She has partnered with radiation oncology to study proton beam therapy's role in reducing late effects of therapy without compromising cure, and to develop strategies to reduce radiation exposure.