Survivors Taking Action and Responsibility (STAR) Program

During their visit, patients meet with an advanced practice nurse and a physician for a comprehensive physical exam and psychosocial evaluation. The healthcare staff provides a summary of prior treatments and evaluations, screening, education, and counseling about possible late effects due to prior therapies.

The STAR program consults with other specialists as needed to provide your child with the best care to address any complications from treatment, including:

• Endocrine disorders
• Impaired growth or development
• Infertility
• Reduced bone density
• Cardiovascular disease
• Gastrointestinal disorders

In an effort to provide complete care, our program offers a comprehensive clinic staffed by the STAR advanced practice nurse and physician, a cardiologist, an immunologist and an endocrinologist. The clinic allows patients to achieve all necessary evaluations and ancillary testing in one visit. With this approach, each individual survivor’s history is reviewed together by all medical providers to deliver an optimal personalized treatment plan.

Our multidisciplinary team includes:

• Jennifer Reichek, MD, MSW, director of the STAR program, is the physician seeing patients in the STAR Program. Dr. Reichek also directs the active research initiative. She is an active participant in the Solid Tumor Program and heads the Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer program at Lurie Children’s.
• Natasha Pillay Smiley, DO, is the physician seeing patients in the Brain STAR Program and follows all childhood brain tumor survivors.
• Karina Danner-Koptik, RN, MSN, APN-CPON, holds the program’s nursing responsibilities for patient evaluations, patient education and research. She provides expertise in instructing colleagues across the nation in survivorship issues. Karina is an active participant in the STAR Program’s research initiatives.
• Katie Valentino, APN, is a member of the STAR nursing team and is responsible for patient evaluations, patient education and research.
• Morris Kletzel, MD, sees STAR patients who have undergone hematopoietic stem cell transplant, and actively participates in research activities. Dr. Kletzel is a world-renowned hematopoietic stem cell transplant physician and expert in the field of chronic graft-versus-host disease.
• Tricia Salicete is the STAR Program liaison and research coordinator. Tricia plays an important role in clinic management and research initiatives, including supervising scheduling, organizing operational flow and coordinating data for the Childhood Cancer Survivors Study.
• Our clinical office assistant, coordinates the STAR program schedules and appointments.

Other disciplines that work within the STAR team include immunology, cardiology, endocrinology and neuropsychology.

The STAR Program is committed to the ongoing development of and participation in research to improve the quality of life for long-term survivors of childhood cancer and hematopoietic stem cell transplant. We are active members of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) and participate in many studies through this international organization. We also participate in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS), a national study examining long term effects in survivors of childhood cancer and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.