National Expert in Pediatric Cancer Survivorship Joined Lurie Children’s

The Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders is excited to share that Tara O. Henderson, MD, MPH, a national expert in pediatric cancer survivorship, joined Lurie Children’s as the Founders' Board Centennial Chair of Pediatrics. Her NIH-funded research has impacted policy and practice to integrate cancer care with primary and subspecialty care from diagnosis to long-term survivorship.

The American Pediatric Society recently named Dr. Henderson as the recipient of the 2026 Norman J. Siegel New Member Outstanding Science Award. She was recognized for her groundbreaking research that transformed survivorship care and dedication to improving outcomes for children and young adults with cancer.

Dr. Henderson also served on the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Board of Directors from 2020 to 2024, has been named an ASCO Advocacy Champion, and was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation, a medical honor society of physician scientists in 2021.

Dr. Henderson completed her medical degree at the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago and her Master of Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She completed her hematology-oncology fellowship at the Boston Children's Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Combined Program, her health services research fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital and her pediatrics residency at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Survivors of High-Risk Neuroblastoma Face Substantial Late Effects of Modern Therapies

Dr. Tara Henderson’s seminal study recently published in Lancet Child and Adolescent Health found that most survivors of high risk neuroblastoma suffer from late effects of multiple stem cell transplants and immunotherapy that were added to intensive chemotherapy as the standard of care within the last two decades.

Read more about the findings

Additional New Faculty Focused on Cancer Survivorship

Lindsay Schwartz, MD, MS, and Rachel Werk, MD, MSCI, joined the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders in 2025, both with research focused on childhood cancer survivorship. 

Dr. Schwartz’s research investigates the impact of health behaviors and psychosocial factors on long-term health outcomes of childhood, adolescent, and young adult cancer survivors. She also evaluates clinical outcomes of young patients with rare types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, who are often ineligible for clinical trials. Lastly, she studies long-term fertility issues that young patients receiving gonadotoxic therapies may face as cancer survivors. She is a member of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and Outcomes/Survivorship committees, serving on the COG Long-Term Follow Up Guidelines Taskforce. Her research has received grants from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and United States Department of Defense (DOD), and Dr. Schwartz is the prior recipient of the 2021 International Society of Pediatric Oncology (SIOP) Young Investigator Award and the 2024 American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (ASPHO) Young Investigator Award. She received her medical degree from University of Illinois College of Medicine and completed her residency in pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She then returned to Chicago to complete her pediatric hematology/oncology fellowship at the University of Chicago. During her fellowship, she obtained a Master of Science in Public Health Sciences, also from the University of Chicago. 

Dr. Werk’s research has explored the psychosocial and neurocognitive dimensions of pediatric cancer care, spanning early work on health-risk behaviors in adolescent and young adult survivors, to studies of spiritual and neurologic development, predictors of post-traumatic stress symptoms, and most recently the validation of a parent-reported screening tool to identify neurocognitive deficits. She is the recipient of the 2025 Hyundai Hope on Wheels Young Investigator Grant to develop and pilot a caregiver-focused educational module that teaches parents about neurocognitive late effects. This project aims to empower families, provide necessary resources, and improve early recognition of cognitive concerns among pediatric cancer patients and survivors. She completed her pediatric residency at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, her pediatric hematology/oncology fellowship at Lurie Children’s and earned a Master of Science in Clinical Investigation at Northwestern University.