News Releases

ORLANDO (December 6, 2025)  — Nemours Children’s Health experts in cancer, sickle cell disease, and other blood disorders will present their latest findings at the 67^th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition, held December 6-9 in Orlando.

“Research has enabled tremendous progress against many blood disorders, but the momentum must continue for the benefit of our pediatric patients,” said Matthew M. Davis, MD, MAPP, Executive Vice President, Enterprise Physician-in-Chief, and Chief Scientific Officer, Nemours Children’s Health. “At Nemours Children’s Health, we are committed to research that addresses major threats to child health and advances care. ASH provides a robust forum for sharing the latest and most promising developments in this field.”

Presentations at ASH in which a Nemours scientist is the first or senior author include:

Ibrahim Gwarzo, MD, DrPH, research scientist at Nemours Children’s Health, Delaware Valley, will be featured in the ASH press program. He will present results of a study titled Multicenter evaluation of guideline adherence for the timeliness of pain medication for acute sickle cell disease pain. Building upon research published earlier this year in JAMA Pediatrics, Dr. Gwarzo will discuss the fact that two-thirds of patients who visited emergency departments during a sickle cell pain crisis did not receive opioid-based pain medication within the timeframe recommended by experts.

David Brousseau, MD, MS, Pediatrician-in-Chief and Director of Research at Nemours Children’s Health, Delaware Valley, is senior author of a study titled Prediction model for pediatric return visits for sickle cell disease post-emergency department discharge for acute pain. This study characterizes factors that increase the likelihood that pediatric sickle cell disease patients will return to the emergency department within 14 days of a previous discharge.  

Renee Gresh, DO, Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist, is first author of a study titled Use of an oncology informatics knowledgebase to improve influenza vaccination rate in pediatric oncology patients. Dr. Gresh will describe how establishing a focused knowledge base about pediatric oncology patients helped track flu vaccination rates and design targeted reminders to caregivers with unvaccinated children.  

Manuel Gonzales, MD, Fellow in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, and Kimberly Davidow, MD, Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist, will present results of their study, Baseline characterization of nutrition counseling and modifiable cardiovascular risk factors among childhood cancer survivors through EHR-linked data analytics. The authors used electronic health records to identify survivors who exhibited risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as excess weight or high cholesterol. This information could allow doctors to suggest nutrition counseling for at-risk patients.  

Julian Zorrilla, DO, Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist, senior author of a study titled Experience with minor surgeries in people with hemophilia A or B with and without inhibitors receiving fitusiran, will discuss how prophylactic treatment made it more feasible to conduct minor surgeries in patients with hemophilia.

Also of interest:

Aleksandra Dain, MD, Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist, senior author: Accurate and automated multi-center TCD velocity analysis using natural language processing

Russell Sundby, MD, Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist, senior author: Utility of peripheral blood cell-free DNA in detecting minimal residual disease in patients receiving CAR T-cell therapy for B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL)

Megan Askew, MD, Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist, first author: Systematic review on the diagnostic evaluation of pediatric Evans syndrome

Stephanie Guarino, MD, Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist, senior author: Nutrition needs assessment for sickle cell disease throughout the lifespan

The Nemours Cancer Stem Cell Laboratory also led four studies that will be presented at ASH:

• Mechanism of acquired resistance to histone deacetylase inhibitor, romidepsin, in myeloid leukemia associated with Down syndrome
• BTK regulates EZH2 stability in myeloid leukemia associated with Down syndrome
• Azacitidine-panobinostat activates NF-kb signaling in the bone marrow microenvironment to chemosensitize KMT2A rearranged pediatric AML
• DYRK1A interacts with EZH2 to regulate transcriptionally active chromatin in myeloid leukemia associated with Down syndrome

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About Nemours Children's Health 

Nemours Children’s Health is one of the nation’s largest multistate pediatric health systems, which includes two freestanding children's hospitals and a network of more than 70 primary and specialty care practices. Nemours Children's seeks to transform the health of children by adopting a holistic health model that utilizes innovative, safe, and high-quality care, while also addressing children’s needs well beyond medicine. In producing the highly acclaimed, award-winning pediatric medicine podcast Well Beyond Medicine, Nemours underscores that commitment by featuring the people, programs and partnerships addressing whole child health. Nemours Children's also powers the world’s most-visited website with health information written for parents, kids and teens, Nemours KidsHealth. 

The Nemours Foundation, established through the legacy and philanthropy of Alfred I. duPont, provides pediatric clinical care, research, education, advocacy, and prevention programs to the children, families and communities it serves. For more information, visit Nemours.org.