Dr. William Ferguson

SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital

Dr. Ferguson is Director of Hematology-Oncology at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital and the Bob Costas Professor of Pediatrics at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

Appointments: (314) 268-4000 to schedule.

1465 S. Grand Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63104
Phone: (314) 577-5638
E-mail: fergusws@slu.edu

Dr. Ferguson is the Division Director of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, and medical director of the Bob Costas Cancer Center. He is the Bob Costas Professor of Pediatrics at Saint Louis University. He has also served as the Medical Director of the St Louis Cord Blood Bank—the second largest such bank in the US—and as interim director of the Saint Louis University Cancer Center.

After completing fellowship training, Dr. Ferguson returned to the Children’s Service of the Massachusetts General Hospital where he subsequently became chief of the Hematology-Oncology Unit. In 1996 he moved to Rhode Island Hospital where he was Clinical Director of Oncology and Fellowship Director. In 2004 he assumed his current position in St. Louis.

Major research interests have included treatment of bone and soft tissue sarcomas, sickle cell disease and other hemoglobinopathies, new oncology drug development, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (with a particular interest in the use of umbilical cord blood). He has been actively involved in clinical trial development for over 30 years, including roles within the Pediatric Oncology Group, the Children’s Oncology Group, and the Beat Childhood Cancer consortium (formerly NMTRC) as well as developing several investigator-initiated trials. He has served on the Institutional Review Boards at both MGH and at Saint Louis University.

1982	New York University School of Medicine MD
1982-1984, 1984-1987	Children’s Service, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School Pediatric residency, Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Fellowship,
1985-1987	Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Cancer Research Research Fellowship

Harris MB, Cantor AB, Goorin AM, Shocat SJ, Ayala AG, Ferguson WS, Holbrook T, Link MP. Treatment of Osteosarcoma with Ifosfamide: Comparison of Response in Pediatric Patients with Recurrent Disease versus Patients Previously Untreated. A Pediatric Oncology Group Study. Medical and Pediatric Oncology 1995; 24:87-92.
Harris MB, Gieser P, Goorin AM, Ayala A, Shochat SJ, Ferguson WS, Holbrook T, Link MP. Treatment of Metastatic Osteosarcoma at Diagnosis: A Pediatric Oncology Group Study. J Clin Oncol 1998; 16:3641-3648.

Kurkchubasche AG, Halvorson EG, Forman EN, Terek RM, Ferguson WS. The Role of Preoperative Chemotherapy in the Treatment of Infantile Fibrosarcoma. J Pediatr Surg 35:880-883, 2000 (also abstracted in the 2001 “Year Book of Oncology”).

Ferguson WS, Harris MB, Goorin AM, Gebhardt MC, Link MP, Shochat SJ, Siegal GP, Devidas M, Grier H. Pre-Surgical Window of Carboplatin and Surgery and Multidrug Chemotherapy for the Treatment of Newly Diagnosed Metastatic or Unresectable Osteosarcoma: Pediatric Oncology Group Trial. Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology 2001; 23:340-348.

Goorin AM, Harris MB, Bernstein M, Ferguson W, Devidas M, Siegal GP, Gebhardt M, Schwartz C, Link M, Grier HE. Phase II/II Trial of Etoposide and High-Dose Ifosfamide in Newly Diagnosed Metastatic Osteosarcoma: A Pediatric Oncology Group (POG) Trial. J Clin Oncol 2002; 20(2):426-433.

Meyers PA, Schwartz CL, Krailo M, Kleinerman ES, Betcher D, Bernstein ML, Conrad E, Ferguson W, Gebhardt M, Goorin AM, Harris MB, Healey J, Huvos A, Link M, Montebello J, Nadel H, Nieder M, Sato J, Siegal G, Weiner M, Wells R, Wold L, Womer R, Grier H. Osteosarcoma: A randomized, prospective trial of the addition of ifosfamide and/or muramyl tripeptide to cisplatin, doxorubicin, and high-dose methotrexate. Journal of Clinical Oncology 2005, 23:2004-2011.

Skapek SX, Ferguson WS, Granowetter L, Devidas M, Perez-Ataye A, Hoffer FA, Speights R, Gebhardt MC, Dahl GV, Womer RB, Anderson JR, Meyer WH, Grier HE. Vinblastine and methotrexate for desmoid fibromatosis in children: results of a Pediatric Oncology Group phase II trial. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2007, 25:501-6.

Gebhardt MC, Goorin AM, Harris M, Kleinerman E, Link MP, Nadel H, Nieder M, Sato J, Siegal GP, Weiner MA, Wells RJ, Womer RB, Grier HE. Osteosarcoma: The addition of muramyl tripeptide to chemotherapy improves overall survival—A report from the Children’s Oncology Group. J Clin Oncol 2008, 26 (4): 633-8.

Beaty AD, Weller C, Levy B, Vogler C, Ferguson WS, Bicknese A, Knutsen AP. A teenage boy with late onset hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis with predominant neurologic disease and perforin deficiency. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2008, 50:1070-1072.

Saulnier-Sholler GL, Bergendahl G, Brard L, Singh AP, Heath B, Bingham P, Ashikaga T, Kamen B, Homans A, Slavik MA, Lenox A, Higgins T, Ferguson W. A Phase I Study of Nifurtimox in Patients with Relapsed/Refractory Neuroblastoma. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol 2011, 33:25-30.

Ebb D, Meyers P, Grier H, Bernstein M, Gorlick R, Lipshultz SE, Krailo M, Devidas M, Barkauskas DA, Siegal GP, Ferguson WS, Letson GD, Marcus K, Goorin A, Beardsley P, Marina N. Phase II Trial of Trastuzumab in Combination with Cytotoxic Chemotherapy for Treatment of Metastatic Osteosarcoma With Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 Overexpression: A Report From the Children’s Oncology Group. J Clin Oncol. 2012, 30:2545-51.

Lund TC, Cathey SS, Miller WP, Eapen M, Andreansky M, Dvorak CC, Davis JH, Dalal JD, Devine SM, Eames GM, Ferguson WS, Giller RH, He W, Kurtzberg J, Krance R, Katsanis E, Lewis VA, Sahdev I, Orchard PJ. Outcomes after Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant for Children with I-Cell Disease. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 2014, 20:1847-51.

Saulnier Sholler GL, Bond JP, Bergendahl G, Dutta A, Dragon J, Neville K, Ferguson W, Roberts W, Eslin D, Kraveka J, Kaplan J, Mitchell D, Parikh N, Merchant M, Ashikaga T, Hanna G, Lescault PJ, Siniard A, Corneveaux J, Huentelman M, Trent J. Feasibility of Implementing Molecular-Guided Therapy for the Treatment of Patients with Relapsed or Refractory Neuroblastoma. Cancer Med. 2015 4(6):871-86.

Saulnier Sholler GL, Gerner EW, Bergendahl G, MacArthur RB, VanderWerff A, Ashikaga T, Bond JP, Ferguson W, Roberts W, Wada RK, Eslin D, Kraveka JM, Kaplan J, Mitchell D, Parikh NS, Neville K, Sender L, Higgins T, Kawakita M, Hiramatsu K, Moriya SS, Bachmann AS. A Phase I Trial of DFMO Targeting Polyamine Addiction in Patients with Relapsed/Refractory Neuroblastoma. PLoS One. 2015 May 27;10(5):e0127246.

Mitchell D, Bergendahl G, Ferguson W, Roberts W, Higgins T, Ashikaga T, DeSarno M, Kaplan J, Kraveka J, Eslin D, Werff AV, Hanna GK, Sholler GL. A phase 1 trial of TPI 287 as a single agent and in combination with temozolomide in patients with refractory or recurrent neuroblastoma or medulloblastoma. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2016;63:39–46. [Epub ahead of print, 2015 Jul 31]PMID: 26235333.

Wilson JZ, Marin D, Maxwell K, Cumming J, Berger R, Saini S, Ferguson W, Chibnall JT. Association of Posttraumatic Growth and Illness-Related Burden with Psychosocial Factors of Patient, Family, and Provider in Pediatric Cancer Survivors. J Trauma Stress. 2016 Oct;29(5):448-456. doi: 10.1002/jts.22123. Epub 2016 Aug 31.