Bibliosphere

      What does survival really mean?  Most cancer statistics have a little disclaimer on the end, stating that they are the five-year survival statistics.  This is fine in many adults cancers, where the average age at diagnosis is in the upper 60s, and five years is longer than their average life expectancy.  But with childhood cancer, the average age is 10, meaning a child lives to be 15.  Is this really survival?  To most people, no, but this is the form the statistics take.  Five years.  That's it.        The overall childhood cancer survival rate is about 80%.  However, since these are averages over all types of childhood cancer (over 100 kinds), they don't actually represent what these cancers are like.  ALL, the most common childhood cancer, has a survival of 87%, and retinoblastoma has a survival of 99% (keep in mind that the treatment is removal of one or both eyes).  However, the survival rat...

Sometimes a photo is most powerful 

  I was thinking the other day about luck.  Someone said to me how my brother was lucky with his cancer, to get such good treatment.  Ii wanted to think about just how lucky we got.     First, my brother was unlucky.  He got cancer, a 1 in 330 chance.  Specifically, he got rhabdomyosarcoma, which is a 3% chance for a child with cancer.  Rhabdo itself has a five-year survival of about 60%.  However, of the two sub-types of Rhabdo, my brother had alveolar, stage 3, putting him even lower on the survival chances.     But then my brother's luck started to change.  He had no metastases, as 80% of childhood cancer patients do.  There was a hospital equipped to treat childhood cancer within 40 miles of our house, and our insurance company was willing to cover treatment there.  He completed his treatment without any major complications.  He went into full remission, and even now, nearly 7 years later, he is still canc...

       September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. I wanted to provide a mid-month recap of some childhood cancer information.  Please use these to help spread awareness! Some Childhood Cancer facts (courtesy of Candlelighters acco.org) Every year in the US 13,400 children (ages 0-19) are diagnosed with cancer. That equates to 46 children a day. Another way to approach this number: 1 in 330 children will get cancer. Childhood cancer is the leading cause of disease related death. About 1 in 5 children diagnosed with cancer will die as a result of their cancer. Over 60% of those who do survive suffer moderate to severe complications, including infertility, diabetes, heart disease, and secondary cancers. The most common childhood cancers are leukemias, followed by brain and CNS tumors. The average age for a childhood cancer diagnosis is 10 years old. 80% of children has a metastic cancer (meaning the disease has spread and is therefore harder to treat a...

Natalie Grace is at it again, raising money for childhood cancer research one dollar at a time.  Last year, Natalie had a goal of $50,000 and raised $110,000!  This year she has set her goal at $150,000.  You can help her reach her final goal  online , or via the mail: P.O. Box 4064 Middletown, NJ 07748 c/0: Infinite Love for Natalie Grace (Andrea Verdone Gorsegner)

       When I was twelve, my world changed.  I was thrown into the world of childhood cancer because my younger brother, Nolan, was diagnosed with Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma, an aggressive soft tissue tumor, which was lodged in his sinus cavity.      The treatment for Rhabdo included nearly a year of three week chemo cycles of VAC - vincristine, dactinomycin, and cyclophosphamid, removal surgery, and four weeks of proton radiation therapy.  We met other families, other kids, who were getting rhabdo treatment at the same time, who had been diagnosed before or about the same time.  My brother is the only one left.  Rhabdo is a killer, with a 60% 5 year survival under good conditions.  Relapses and metastases are common, and many of those who made it to the five year mark died afterwards, more relapses, more metastases, more complications.       For a long time, even the mention of my brother's cancer made m...

Cancer is so limited. It cannot cripple love. It cannot shatter hope. It cannot corrode faith. It cannot destroy peace. It cannot kill friendships. It cannot suppress memories. It cannot silence courage. It cannot invade the soul. It cannot steal eternal life. It cannot conquer the spirit. Cancer is so limited. -author unknown