PLUK News feed

Recording Songs at Children's Cancer Center Raises Spirits

Link: Songs for Cancer
Cancer shouldn't keep kids from becoming the next pop star. For pediatric patients at the Texas Children's Cancer Center in Houston, treatment is the ticket to writing and recording a song at an on-site recording studio.

Whole Brain Radiation Increases Risk Of Learning And Memory Problems In Cancer Patients

Cancer patients who receive stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT) for the treatment of metastatic brain tumors have more than twice the risk of developing learning and memory problems than those treated with SRS alone, according to new research from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Young People with Cancer: A Handbook for Parents

Link: Cancer Handbook

Young People with Cancer gives you information on all stages of your child's illness. It tells you what to expect and suggests ways to prepare for different situations.

New Leukemia Drug Shows Promise in Clinical Trial

Link: Drug

More than half of patients with chronic leukemia who don't respond to other drugs improved within 24 weeks on a new drug, which may be widely available by the end of the year.

Childhood Cancer Survivors May Struggle to Find Work

Link: Work

Increasing numbers of children who beat cancer may have trouble transitioning to the work force, with some 5.6% of survivors never having been employed, almost five times the rate of their siblings, according to a recent study. "We were surprised at the magnitude of the difference," says Debra Friedman, an author of the study.

Childhood Cancer Has Lingering Effects on Survivors

Link: Cancer

When Ryan Whetter was 9 years old, he survived a malignant brain tumor thanks to radiation, but the treatment halted his physical development. About two-thirds of survivors experience a "late effect," which can include delayed puberty, organ damage and learning disabilities, doctors say.

Teens Use Mobile Phones for Cancer Care

Link: Cell Phones

Young cancer patients are effectively using cell phones to help monitor and manage the often agonizing side effects of home chemotherapy, a new study reports. Teens and young adults are given phones that enable them to detail and then forward their symptoms to doctors, with the most serious ones trigging an alert at the hospital.

Health Problems May Continue to Plague Childhood Cancer Survivors

Link: Cancer

Some 270,000 people who have survived childhood cancer may face increased risk of breast cancer, heart problems, infertility, depression and other health problems for the rest of their lives due to the effects of chemotherapy and radiation. "It really hits home when you see a young adult who comes in with congestive heart failure because of their radiation exposure," says pediatric oncologist Jacqueline Casillas.

Trial Shows Personalized Cancer Treatment Holds Promise

Link: Treatment

Metastatic lung cancer patients who were screened for epidermal growth factor receptor mutations and given Iressa -- an EGFR inhibitor -- showed tumor shrinkage and median progression-free survival of about nine months, according to a clinical trial funded by AstraZeneca. A cancer researcher not involved with the study said the findings are "a giant step forward" for personalized cancer treatment, which aims "to take a molecular fingerprint of someone's tumor and assign treatment based on molecular defects."

NewsWeek: Survived Cancer, Want Job

Link: NewsWeek

Jolene Harvey has a small voice and, at 4 feet 8, a small body. Although she has a medical assistant's degree, her employment record is spotty—it's mostly brief stints as a nanny—and right now she doesn't have a job. Her test scores and report cards have never been great, and today, at 35, she says, she "doesn't pick up a book unless it's a romance novel." She is not, in other words, the stuff of employers' dreams: a go-getter with a highly polished résumé. Neither is Kurt Zuhone, who is 24 and currently living on his dad's corn and soybean farm in rural Illinois. An aspiring record producer and recent college graduate, he sent out applications for entry-level jobs two months ago but hasn't heard back about any of them. When he finally does get an interview, he says, he expects to be asked about "things I've struggled with." He has a long list of those. He's bad at taking notes, and since the age of 9, teachers have been telling him he "isn't quick enough."