Rajkumar Venkatramani, MD, MS, MBA

About Dr. Rajkumar Venkatramani, MD, MS, MBA, FAAP

Rajkumar Venkatramani, MD, MS, MBA, FAAP is the section chief of oncology at Texas Children’s Hospital, where he also serves as director of the Rare Tumors Program and director of clinical business operations of the Cancer and Hematology Center.

The Rare Tumors Program is dedicated to the care of children with rare pediatric cancers. As director of the program, Dr. Venkatramani leads a multidisciplinary team of pediatric oncologists, pathologists, surgeons, radiologists, geneticists, and researchers to achieve the best possible outcome for every patient. As no standard diagnostic or treatment protocols exist for most rare tumors, the Rare Tumor Program has developed standardized treatment regimens for multiple rare pediatric tumors.

About Dr. Venkatramani’s Research

Children with rare cancers face challenges such as delayed diagnosis, lack of information and no standardized treatment protocols, especially those with rare sarcomas. Often diagnosed as undifferentiated sarcomas, these cancers have varied prognoses.

Since 2019, Dr. Venkatramani has received ongoing funding from the Pediatric cancer Research Foundation’s Will Irwin Memorial Fund.  These grants are designated for research examining the molecular basis of rare sarcomas, aiming to develop better treatments. The research studies children with undifferentiated sarcoma, testing tumor and blood samples with advanced genetic tests. Unused samples are stored for future research and results are shared with parents and physicians.

In 2023, Dr. Venkatramani and Dr. Andras Heczey focused on developing immune therapy for children with malignant rhabdoid tumors (MRTs). Dr. Heczey’s lab studies genes involved in CAR T cell exhaustion, where CAR T cells fail to recognize and kill tumor cells. They developed the MOTOR system to evaluate 3,000 genes using barcoded DNA technology. Preliminary results are promising, identifying new regulators to prevent and rescue CAR T cells from exhaustion. The top gene will be selected for further clinical development, aiming for a Phase 1 clinical trial.