Dr. Valerie Brown, clinical director of the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Experimental Therapeutics Program at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital, said that although cancer treatment has improved substantially over the last 50 years, there’s still a long way to go.
Survival rates have doubled from 40 percent to 80 percent among standard risk patients since the 1970s, Brown said. That’s the good news. But one out of five children still die from the disease.
“We’ve sort of reached our limitations for how to shuffle the different standard chemotherapy agents,” she said. “We have used these drugs as intensely as possible and in as many different combinations as possible.”
“We’ve reached the limit with these drugs, and yet a proportion of children will still die from their cancer,” Brown said.
That is why Brown and other pediatric oncologists and researchers have focused their efforts on understanding what gives high-risk patients’ cancer cells a survival advantage. Her expertise is acute lymphoblastic leukemia or ALL, the most common childhood cancer.
Recent findings have revealed a “kinase signature” genetically programmed within the leukemia cells in patients who have a harder time achieving remission. Those patients are predominantly Hispanic and Native American. This discovery has led to the incorporation of novel drugs that target this “kinase signature.” Brown believes this discovery will lead to genetic testing of a patient’s cancer cells in order to personalize the treatment course as being the standard at the time of a cancer diagnosis.
Category Archives: Medical/Research
Michigan children’s hospital to get $250,000 grant
“The generous support from Hyundai’s Hope on Wheels is going to allow us to pursue an exciting new area of investigation that we are optimistic will lead to better therapy for Ewing sarcoma patients,” Lawlor said. “This research is particularly innovative since it involves new partnerships with other investigators from diverse disciplines across the University of Michigan. We are confident that by working together we are going to make more important discoveries and make them faster.”
Researchers find new gene mutations for Wilms Tumor
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center and the Gill Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s Medical Center, Dallas, have made significant progress in defining new genetic causes of Wilms tumor, a type of kidney cancer found only in children.
Wilms tumor is the most common childhood genitourinary tract cancer and the third most common solid tumor of childhood.
Can Cancer Be Treated Without Radiation Therapy?
Recently, a group of researchers under Wyndham Wilson and Kieron Dunleavy, both from NCI, carried out a new study which eliminates the need of radiation therapy while treating Primary Mediastinal B-cell Lymphoma, which is a rare type of cancer.
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Presently, the results from this study have been quite encouraging and there is now reason to believe that it may be possible to treat cancer more effectively without making use of radiation in the near future.
Research is an important aspect for finding ways to combat cancer. Many events that are conducted in places like Chicago and Mackinaw in Illinois by Lungevity to fund research and help find better cure.
How A 4-Year-Old’s Legacy Is Bringing Researchers Together To Fight Childhood Cancer
Although pediatric cancer research is making great strides, a funding shortage threatens further progress in this lifesaving field.
In one groundbreaking trial, researchers injected a young college student’s brain tumor with a form of the polio virus. Because she had previously received the polio vaccine, the girl’s body began to fight the tumor. Once the size of a lime, it’s now the size of a pea.
“When you hear a story like that, it sends chills up your spine,” said Jay Scott, co-executive director of Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation.
But scientific breakthroughs can occur only if medical research receives sufficient funding
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Next month, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) is teaming up with Northwestern Mutual to host its second Young Investigators Summit and inspire a new generation of pediatric cancer researchers to find treatments and cures in this vastly underfunded field.
“Anybody who can do the math can figure out that kids are getting shortchanged,” said Scott, who believes that cures for most kids can be found within five to ten years.
Nine in ten pediatric cancer researchers say lack of funding is the biggest obstacle to finding a cure,according to a survey by Northwestern Mutual. And nearly a fifth of researchers are considering leaving the field, primarily because of a lack of funds.
“That’s a real eye-opener,” said Scott. “We don’t want to lose a whole generation of potential cancer researchers.”
Family Doctors in Driving Seat for Treating Cancer Survivors
General practitioners face a dilemma. In a recent survey (Ann Intern Med. 2014;160:11-17), most reported being unfamiliar with the guidelines and uncomfortable treating adult survivors of childhood cancer; however, they can expect to see more such patients each year as treatments for childhood cancer become increasingly successful.
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“I envision the development of a subspecialty — either of doctors or nurse practitioners — who deal with cancer patients outside the care of an oncologist and who are trained in survivorship, know a lot about treatment, and know about supportive, palliative, and nutritional care in survivors,” she said.
In the meantime, however, family practitioners are in the driver’s seat.
Children’s Medical Center Researchers Tie Gene To Pediatric Cancer, Hope To Spur New Treatments
Dallas researchers have pinpointed a gene that fuels the development of several pediatric cancers, a finding that could serve as an impetus for pharmaceutical companies to develop new cancer treatments that help without using chemotherapy.
The Challenges After Surviving a Childhood Disease
For Millions of Teens and Young Adults, Finding a Doctor to Treat Them as They Grow Up Is Hard
“Every youth needs a transition plan to adult care, but for those with complex medical needs who require constant interaction with the health care system, it’s especially important that the connection not be broken,” says GotTransition’s co-director, rheumatologist Patience White.
When unapproved drugs are the only hope
The debate over compassionate use and “Right to Try” legislation.
The U.S. has a system meant to help: it’s called compassionate use and it’s a way for terminally ill or otherwise optionless patients to access experimental drugs outside of clinical trials. For a patient to receive a medicine on that basis, she must have the support of her physician, the consent of the Food and Drug Administration and a pharmaceutical company willing to supply the drug. That’s where the Trallers, and many others, have gotten stuck.