As more children are surviving childhood cancers, some are finding themselves fighting the battle again later on, in adulthood. Such is the case with many women who were treated for Hodgkin’s disease when they were children if they were treated with radiation. And, the higher the radiation, the higher the risk – up to 40 times that of women who didn’t have Hodgkin’s disease, say researchers.
Until about 20 years ago, Hodgkin’s disease in children was treated very aggressively with high doses of radiation and little else, but the survival rate has increased significantly. Over the past two decades, with improvements …read more

Having a sick child is bad enough, having a sick child who is dying is pretty close to unbearable. But what if you found out that your child was suffering needlessly from pain because he or she wasn’t getting adequate pain relief?
According to an article in the journal Pediatric Blood & Cancer, children who need opioids during their last weeks of life may not be getting what they need. The study found that just over half (56%) of children who needed opioids in their last week of life received them every day. There was a difference between children with private …read more

Ependymoma is a brain cancer that affects children. It’s not easy to treat, but researchers from St. Jude’s Hospital found that aggressive surgery, followed by radiation resulted in a overall survival of     81% and a 7-year survival rate of up to 69.1%.
To read more about this study, go to Aggressive Treatment Effective in Kids’ Brain Cancer
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Tags: cancer blog, childhood brain cancer, ependymoma, st judes hospital

We promise to love and protect them from birth. Every cut and bump makes us cringe; when our children hurt, we hurt. We hope and pray that our children will remain safe, and we are saddened by stories of others whose children are sick or who have been hurt.
There are times though, when we can’t protect our children from becoming ill. According to the United States National Cancer Institute, "cancer is the leading cause of death by disease among U.S. children between infancy and age 15." Interestingly, white children develop cancer more than children from any other ethnic group.
Leukemia, brain …read more

When I began writing my blog, Help My Hurt, I knew that I’d be writing about children and pain. And, along with that topic, came children and cancer and pain.
If you’re looking for information on children and cancer pain, you may be interested in having a look at these two posts::
Making Cancer Less Painful – A Handbook for Parents
Treating cancer pain in children
Although this is for parents of children with sickle cell anemia, the form that is discussed could easily be adapted to a child with any type of pain that needs constant management:
Sickle Cell Pain Relief Record
As I get …read more

The makers of EDY’s products – Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, Inc. – is extending its huge thanks o citizens throughout the Northeast that stopped in to their local Stop & Shop or Giant Food store on May 3 to support Scoop Day and the fight against childhood cancer.

More than $120,000 was raised at Stop & Shop and Giant stores throughout New England, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, Washington D.C., and Maryland on the one day where shoppers donated $1 for a scoop of SLOW CHURNED light ice cream or $3 for a scoop of SLOW CHURNED light ice …read more