Archive for cancer
Guidance for assessing treatment response in pediatric brain tumors
Assessing patients’ response to cancer therapy can be challenging, especially in neuro-oncology. Generally, we assess treatment response by a change in tumor size on MRI scan. However, with brain tumors, changes on MRI scan can be difficult to interpret. A decrease in tumor size may indicate treatment is having an effect; however, a drug can ... Read More about Guidance for assessing treatment response in pediatric brain tumors
Racism and children’s health: What providers need to know
It’s easy to feel outdone by racism, especially as the country cycles through stages of tragedy, awareness, and inertia. But with renewed attention to violence against Black people in recent weeks, many health care providers are asking themselves hard questions: Can we create a better world for the next generation?Can the call for racial justice lead ... Read More about Racism and children’s health: What providers need to know
Racism is a health issue: How it affects kids, what parents can do
Racism has once again gained national attention. Following the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, people around the world are taking a stand against race-based inequality and violence. But even after it fades from the news cycle, racism will remain present in the lives of children. How children experience racism Racism can ... Read More about Racism is a health issue: How it affects kids, what parents can do
Cancer and COVID-19: Ethics guidelines for resource allocation
Main findings: Hospitals should create guidelines in advance to ensure cancer patients are fairly represented in possible resource allocation decisions — in COVID-19 and other emergencies.A cancer diagnosis should be considered as any other underlying health condition.Decisions about distributing limited resources should not be made by a patient’s physician. As the COVID-19 pandemic began surging ... Read More about Cancer and COVID-19: Ethics guidelines for resource allocation
Cancer won’t stop me, and neither will COVID-19
Most people my age look at COVID-19 as a burden on their everyday lives of seeing friends, hanging out, and going to college. I see it differently. As an active cancer patient being treated for T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), I am immunocompromised. This puts me at especially high risk for contracting COVID-19, and my ... Read More about Cancer won’t stop me, and neither will COVID-19
Adults with cancer appear more vulnerable to COVID-19
Cancer, particularly metastatic cancer, can be added to the list of medical conditions that pose a significant risk of worse COVID-19 outcomes , suggests a new study. Led by Boston Children’s Hospital and Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, it represents the first large cohort study to examine COVID-19 outcomes in cancer patients. Findings were published ... Read More about Adults with cancer appear more vulnerable to COVID-19
Gasdermin E: A new approach to cancer immunotherapy
Tumors have figured out various ways to prevent the immune system from attacking them. Medicine, for its part, has fought back with cancer immunotherapy. The major approach uses checkpoint inhibitors, drugs that help the immune system recognize cancer cells as foreign. Another method, CAR T-cell therapy, directly engineers peoples’ T cells to efficiently recognize cancer ... Read More about Gasdermin E: A new approach to cancer immunotherapy
S1P and its receptor: New approaches to cancer?
In 1998, when Timothy Hla, PhD, and his colleagues identified and cloned the receptor for sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), it generated a lot of excitement. S1P, a lipid originally discovered in the 1960s, was known to play various roles in the body and in disease. But it wasn’t thought that lipids could have receptors, and it wasn’t ... Read More about S1P and its receptor: New approaches to cancer?
I never thought this would happen to our son
On June 16, 2019, our 4-year-old son, Evan, fell off a jungle gym at daycare. At first, his daycare provider thought he was fine. He got right up and seemed to recover. She called me and we agreed to watch him to see if there were any changes. A couple hours later, Evan started throwing ... Read More about I never thought this would happen to our son
Gliomatosis cerebri: ‘As long as you keep going, you still have hope’
Anna Arabia, the only child of Kathy and Joe Arabia of North Adams, Massachusetts, was 13 when she was diagnosed with gliomatosis cerebri, a rare, rapidly-growing brain cancer. Unlike other tumors, gliomatosis cerebri does not form into lumps; instead it is threadlike, invading multiple lobes of the brain, making it impossible to remove surgically. Anna ... Read More about Gliomatosis cerebri: ‘As long as you keep going, you still have hope’