Childhood Cancer Research


Research is an extremely important part of childhood cancer and it's treatment. It is due to research that the 5 year survival rate of childhood cancer has risen to nearly 80% (note: this is only 5 years. the overall survival rate is about 62%). While only 1% of adults with cancer are enrolled in clinical studies and research, nearly 80% of kids are. Here are some reasons why:
  1. A high percentage of childhood cancers are metasticized. This means the cancer has spread beyond the primary tumor making it harder to treat. For this reason, traditonal chemo/ surgury/ radiation treatments may not be enough. New treatments are constantly being developed, meaning doctors, parents and patients alike are on the lookout for developments and hope.
  2. Childhood cancers are DIFFERENT from adult cancers. Yes, different. The cancers react differently to treatments, have different pathologies and the kids themselves are more resiliant and can handle different treatments than adults. Yet, despite this, the vast bulk of childhood cancer treatments are adult drugs with a different dose. What?!!?!? Worse yet, most of these approvals were an after thought. Are America's kids worth only an afterthought from big drug companies???!?!?!? Research for Pediatric specific drugs is rare and often difficult to get funded. This is why the new Creating Hope Act, signed into law by President Obama this year, is such a big deal. It provides funding for pediatric specific research.
  3. Our understanding of cancer is very limited. We barely understand how cancer works and what it is, let alone how to stop it and deal with it's effects, as well as preventing and detecting cancer.
  4. Childhood cancer is an umbrella term. There are over 100 types of cancer, some more understood than others. Kids are more likely to get a "rare" cancer than adults, such as a sarcoma. Since we know even less about rare cancers, research is crucial to developing treatments.
  5. The treatments we have now are far from perfect. Chemotherapy comes with a host of nasty side effects and long term effects. While in treatment, chemo causes nausea, extreme lethargy, nuetropenia (death of white blood cells), low platlet and hemoglobin levels, and the list goes on. Chemo is so toxic that nurses often wear special suits to work with and administer it. For long term effects, chemo/ other treatments lead to higher risks/ development of diabetes, heart disease, secondary cancers (yes, more cancers), neuropathy, and psychological, academic and emotional problems. We need better treatments!
There are many more reasons, and I could go on for hours on why research is important. But, I digress. So, we need more research. Unfortunately, pediatric cancer research doesn't have a large market value, and drug companies don't really want to invest in a low return treatment. it's a money game. While the federal government can give perks, including patent benefits and grants, it's often not enough. Donations are needed.
Here are some organizations that donate to childhood cancer research:
http://www.curesearch.org/
http://www.stbaldricks.org/
Please Donate!
If you need a face to donate to, I am walking in the Salt Lake City Cure Search walk, and am trying to raise money, so here's my page: http://www.curesearchwalk.org/saltlakecity/steffil Please help me raise money to beat kids cancer!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Viral Therapy

    Viral therapy is a novel approach to treating cancers.  Infectious shells (viruses) are altered so that instead of causing illness, they fight it from the inside. Because of it's broad applicability, viral therapy shows promise in treating cancer. Read more about viral therapy: Columbus Ohio PubMed review of viral therapy Nationwide Hospital      There are many more articles on Pubmed that discuss various uses of viral therapy and oncolytic viruses. The abstracts are almost always free, and many articles are available through resources at local schools and public libraries.  Happy reading!
Read more

Common Types of Childhood Cancer

 I'm going to do some posts that give readers a background on childhood cancer throughout the year. My goal is to do at least a few related posts every month, for sure the awareness days and months, and then some other information, news, etc.  First, let's dive in to what types of cancers occur in children. There are many types of childhood cancer, hundreds in fact, especially when you consider subtypes. But which are the most common? In order of most to least common, by percent of childhood cancers, they are: Leukemias - 31% Brain and spinal tumors - 26% Lymphomas - 10% Soft tissue sarcomas - 7% Neuroblastoma - 6% Kidney tumors - 5% Bone tumors - 4% Germ cell tumors - 3% Retinoblastoma - 3% Liver tumors - 2% Other cancers - 4% According to the Children's Cancer and Leukemia Society from the UK via MacMillan Cancer Support ( x ). All childhood cancer is considered rare, with only a few hundred per million diagnosed annually. But if you add that up over the span of a childho...
Read more

Vision Board

Image
 My county library is probably one of the most awesome library systems (I am super biased though) and actually is one of the busiest systems in the country. I love the system dearly. I love going to their events and often bring along a friend. For the first week of the year, I brought her to our newest library building for a Vision Boards workshop. I didn't think we would spend the whole hour and a half, but sure enough, we didn't roll out until just before the end of the workshop. I spent a lot of time combing through the magazines, picking just the perfect images and text for my board. I focused on my hobbies, especially cooking, things I want to do this year. I unfortunately didn't include a lot of art items, just based on what the magazines had, but also got a lot of cool foodie stuff and them some other pretty things.  Overall, I don't have one concrete vision for 2024. I have some resolutions, sure, and I have my goals. But I'm trying not to set the bar too hi...
Read more