NEWS & VIEWS

There are a number of federal and state resources available to help families with limited income cover extra expenses while their child is sick. If your child qualifies for disability, he or she may be eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Medicaid, even if already covered by another insurance. 

A sarcoma is a cancer that develops in bone or soft tissue. Soft tissue is the connective tissue between body parts and organs and can include muscles, tendons, fat, bone and cartilage, blood vessels, and lymph vessels. Sarcomas can be found anywhere in the body, but they are most often found in the arms, legs, chest, or abdomen. Pediatric sarcoma is sarcoma occurring in children, and accounts for approximately 15% of pediatric cancer cases, with 1,500 to 1,700 new cases diagnosed each year. 

Neuroblastoma is diagnosed in approximately 800 children in the United States each year. Ninety percent of cases occur in children under five years old, though the average age of diagnosis is between one and two years old. Still, because neuroblastomas form from fetal nerve cells, children as young as newborns can develop tumors, and neuroblastoma accounts for 50% of all cancer cases in infants.

In a landmark in pediatric oncology research, children with high-risk neuroblastoma across Europe and North America will be treated together for the first time, following the award of $1.4M to fund a new transatlantic clinical trial.

Brain and spinal cord tumors, also known as central nervous system (CNS) tumors, are the most common type of solid tumors affecting children. Brain tumors make up about 15% of pediatric cancers, and are the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in children and now, the deadliest type of childhood cancer, ahead of leukemia.

What began as a proposal for a four-center US-based clinical trial of promising combination therapy for children battling brain tumors, has expanded into a large-scale clinical trial at 58 centers in 13 countries, that brings new hope to children across the globe.

September is childhood cancer awareness month, and childhood cancer awareness is represented by the color gold.  We are encouraging kids to swap out their shoelaces during the month of September and support kids fighting cancer by wearing gold.

The British healthcare system has rejected an FDA/EMA-approved treatment proven to increase survival rates for children with cancer.  NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) has rejected access to the drug across the UK, stating cost as the reason.  However, when analyzing the real expense on taxpayers, the cost amounts to less than 3 pence per person, per year, in order to give these children access to the life-saving antibody.

This Phase 1 clinical trial is testing a new type of immunotherapy in children with osteosarcoma and neuroblastoma. Read for a brief update on this SKC-funded clinical trial at Karmanos Cancer Institute and MSKCC.