Theodore W. Laetsch, MD
Areas of expertise: Developmental therapeutics
About Theodore W. Laetsch, MD
Dr. Theodore Laetsch is a pediatric oncologist and leads both the Developmental Therapeutics Program (DVL) and the Very Rare Malignant Tumors Program (VRMTP) at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, as well as holding national leadership roles in each of these areas within the Children’s Oncology Group (COG).
In the DVL program, Dr. Laetsch conducts early phase clinical trials of new treatments for children with difficult to treat cancers, with a particular area of focus including molecularly targeted therapies that are designed to block specific genetic mutations identified in patients' tumors. In particular, Dr. Laetsch leads the pediatric development of TRK inhibitors for children with NTRK gene fusions, and now leads a COG nationwide clinical trial studying the ability to use TRK inhibitors instead of chemotherapy for children with one of these gene fusions.
While individually very uncommon, together very rare malignant tumors comprise over 10% of childhood cancers. Given the rarity of each individual diagnosis, these cancers have been poorly studied and for many patients there are not standard, defined treatments. As the chair of the Rare Tumors Committee for the Children’s Oncology Group, Dr. Laetsch is working to advance the study of these tumors and define new ways to treat patients. Dr. Laetsch is hopeful that we can advance the care of patients with these tumors by using cancer genomics to identify targetable mutations as well as studying immunotherapy, which has revolutionized the care of many of these cancers in adult patients.
Finally, Dr. Laetsch is a member of the cellular therapy / chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell team at the Children’s Hospital. Prior to joining the Children’s Hospital in 2020, Dr. Laetsch led the pediatric CAR T-cell program at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
In each of these areas, Dr. Laetsch provides clinical care and conduct research, with an overarching goal of improving treatment options for children with difficult to treat cancers.
Titles
Attending Physician
Certifications
Pediatric Hematology-Oncology – American Board of Pediatrics
Pediatrics – American Board of Pediatrics
Leadership and Memberships
Memberships in Professional Organizations
International
2009-present Children's Oncology Group (Member)
2015-present Children's Oncology Group/National Cancer Institute, Pediatric MATCH Target Agent and Prioritization (TAP) Committee (Member)
2016-present Children's Oncology Group/National Cancer Institute, Pediatric MATCH Leadership Committee (Member)
2016-present International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) (Member)
2017-present Connective Tissue Oncology Society (CTOS) (Member)
National
2005-2008 American Academy of Pediatrics (Member and Program Delegate)
2009-present American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (ASPHO) (Member)
2010-present American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Member)
2010-present American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (Member)
2015-present Children's Oncology Group/Children's Oncology Group, Target and Agent Prioritization Committee (Member)
2015-2016 Novartis, American Society of Hematology (ASH) Data and Customer Model Advisory Board (Member) br> 2016-present Eli Lilly (Consultant)
2016-2018 Loxo Oncology (Consultant)
2016 National Cancer Institute, Cancer Center Data Sharing Workshop (Member)
2016-present Novartis Pharmaceuticals (Consultant)
2017-present National Institutes of Health, ClinGen Somatic Variant Curation Taskforce (Member)
2017 The Naya Foundation (No More Kids with Cancer Clinical/Translational Research Award Grant Reviewer)
2018-present American Society of Hematology (ASH) (Member)
2018-present Bayer (Consultant)
2018-2019 Focused Ultrasound Foundation (Ad Hoc Grant Reviewer)
2019-present American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), Annual Meeting Education Committee (Track Leader (Pediatric Oncology))
2019-Present Children's Oncology Group, Rare Tumors Committee (Chair)
2019-present National Institutes of Health, ClinGen NTRK fusion Variant Curation Expert Panel (VCEP) (Member)
2019 One Million for Anna Foundation (Ad Hoc Grant Reviewer)
Education & training
Medical Degree
MD - University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Internship
Pediatrics, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver Children's Hospital, Aurora, CO
Residency
Pediatrics - University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver Children's Hospital, Aurora, CO
Fellowship
Pediatric Hematology-Oncology - Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Publications
Publications
2019
TW Laetsch. DS Hawkins.: Larotrectinib for the treatment of TRK fusion solid tumors. Expert Review of Anticancer Therapy 19(1): 1-10, Jan 2019.
CM Albert*, JL Davis*, N Federman, M Casanova, TW Laetsch.: TRK Fusion Cancers in Children: A Clinical Review and Recommendations for Screening. Journal of Clinical Oncology 37(6): 513 - 524, Feb 2019.
AJ Kansagra*, NV Frey*, M Bar*, TW Laetsch*, PA Carpenter, BN Savani, HE Heslop, CM Bollard, KV Komanduri, DA Gastineau, C Chabannon, MA Perales, M Hudecek, M Aljurf, L Andritsos, JA Barrett,V Bachanova, C Bonini, A Ghobadi, SI Gill, J Hill, S Kenderian, P Kebriaei, A Nagler, D Maloney, HD Liu, NN Shah, MA Kharfan-Dabaja, EJ Shpall, GJ Mufti, L Johnston, E Jacoby, A Bazarbachi, JF DiPersio, SZ Pavletic, DL Porter, SA Grupp, M Sadelain, MR Litzow, M Mohty, SK Hashmi. : Clinical utilization of Chimeric Antigen Receptors T-cells (CAR-T) in B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) - an expert opinion from the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) and the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT). Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation 25(3): e76-e85. Mar 2019.
AJ Kansagra*, NV Frey*, M Bar*, TW Laetsch*, PA Carpenter, BN Savani, HE Heslop, CM Bollard, KV Komanduri, DA Gastineau, C Chabannon, MA Perales, M Hudecek, M Aljurf, L Andritsos, JA Barrett,V Bachanova, C Bonini, A Ghobadi, SI Gill, J Hill, S Kenderian, P Kebriaei, A Nagler, D Maloney, HD Liu, NN Shah, MA Kharfan-Dabaja, EJ Shpall, GJ Mufti, L Johnston, E Jacoby, A Bazarbachi, JF DiPersio, SZ Pavletic, DL Porter, SA Grupp, M Sadelain, MR Litzow, M Mohty, SK Hashmi. : Clinical utilization of Chimeric Antigen Receptors T-cells (CAR-T) in B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) - an expert opinion from the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) and the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT). Bone Marrow Transplant 54(11): 1868-1880, Nov 2019 Notes: Clinical practice guidelines.
HL Pacenta, TW Laetsch, S John. : CD19 CAR T Cells for the Treatment of Pediatric Pre-B Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Paediatric Drugs Nov 2019.
2018
Laetsch TW, Maude SL, Milone MC, Davis KL, Krueger J, Cardenas AM, Eldjerou LK, Keir CH, Wood PA, Grupp SA. : False-positive results with select HIV-1 NAT methods following lentivirus-based tisagenlecleucel therapy. Blood 131(23): 2596-2598, Jun 2018 Notes: doi:10.1182/blood-2017-12-822940.
Wu LW, Pavlock T, Patterson A, Post A, Ambrose C, Rajaram V, Pavlick DC, Cooke M, Miller VA, Albacker LA, Ali SM, Smith S, Cox MC, Martin A, Megison S, Laetsch TW.: Durable Clinical Response to Larotrectinib in an Adolescent Patient with an Undifferentiated Sarcoma Harboring an STRN-NTRK2 Fusion. JCO Precision Oncology Aug 2018 Notes: doi: 10.1200/PO.18.00101
2017
TW Laetsch, R Nagasubramanian, M Casanova.: Targeting NTRK fusions for the treatment of congenital mesoblastic nephroma. Pediatric Blood and Cancer Apr 2017 Notes: doi:10.1002/pbc.26593.
TW Laetsch, R Nagasubramanian, M Casanova. : Targeting NTRK fusions for the treatment of congenital mesoblastic nephroma. Pediatric Blood and Cancer Apr 2017 Notes: Letter to the Editor. doi:10.1002/pbc.26593.
C Allen, TW Laetsch, R Mody, MS Irwin, M Lim, PC Adamson, NL Seibel, DW Parsons, YJ Cho, K Janeway. : Target and Agent Prioritization for the Children's Oncology Group - National Cancer Institute Pediatric MATCH Trial. Journal of the National Cancer Institute 109(5), May 2017 Notes: doi:10.1093/jnci/djw274.
NL Seibel, K Janeway, CE Allen, SN Chi, YJ Cho, J Glade Bender, A Kim, TW Laetsch, MS Irwin, N Takebe, JV Tricoli, DW Parsons. : Pediatric Oncology Enters the Era of Precision Medicine. Current Problems in Cancer 41(3): 194 - 200, May-Jun 2017 Notes: doi:10.1016/j.currproblcancer.2017.01.002.
V Huynh, TW Laetsch, R Schore, P Gaynon, MM O'Brien. : Redefining Treatment Failure for Pediatric Acute Leukemia in the Era of Minimal Residual Disease Testing. Pediatric Hematology Oncology Page: 1-14, Nov 2017.
2016
M Rosenzweig, S Ali, MD, V Wong, AB. Schrock, TW Laetsch, A Heilmann, S Morley, Y Chudnovsky, RL. Erlich, K Wang, PJ Stephens, JS Ross, VA Miller, J Oesterheld.: A case of advanced infantile myofibromatosis harboring a novel MYH10-RET fusion. Pediatric Blood Cancer Dec 2016 Notes: doi: 10.1002/pbc.26377.