By Sara Farris on April 3, 2012 8:08 AM
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The mirror is not always a glowing reflection of one's self. For Jason
Cox, there was a point when he didn't even recognize himself.
Today, though, his reflection shows a successful attorney, a community volunteer and, most important, a survivor.
Like many childhood cancer survivors, Cox overcame his cancer, but not without some challenges and side effects along the way.
In 1985, at 14, he was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma in his right cheek, a tumor affecting muscles that attach to the bone. After a year of chemotherapy at MD Anderson Children's Cancer Hospital, he was declared cancer-free.
But six years later, while attending Texas A&M University,
Cox was dealt another blow. His cancer had returned. He endured more
chemotherapy and radiation, but his cancer kept coming back.
"I
weighed the options of having more recurrences or undergoing a major
surgery that would cause some disfiguration to my face," Cox recalls.
"The decision made itself."
By Sara Farris on March 23, 2012 12:29 PM
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Tell children something and they might understand. Show them something and they'll remember it.
In March, MD Anderson Children's Cancer Hospital
did just that. Through two educational events, pediatric patients and
their siblings engaged in fun, interactive activities that brought
learning to life. One fish, two fish "Red fish, blue fish," read one 6-year-old patient. She was among many participating in Read Across America Day hosted by the Pediatric Education and Creative Arts Programat MD Anderson. The annual literacy day celebrates the birthday of Dr.
Seuss, inspiring more than 45 million young readers across the nation to
pick up a book and read.
At the Children's Cancer Hospital,
patients spent the day reading Dr. Seuss books with hospital staff,
making Seuss-inspired art projects, performing a "Seussical" play with
Theatre Under the Stars,and finishing the day with a Dr. Seuss movie.
Throughout the year, patients have the opportunity to participate in various
interactive learning experiences through the hospital's privately accredited school. This spring, students will become young entrepreneurs in the lemonade business, will take a special tour of the Downtown Aquarium as part of their distance learning curriculum and also will engage in their annual "field day."
By Sara Farris on February 22, 2012 7:45 AM
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If you had to design a space that appealed to a 5-year-old as well as a 25-year-old, what would it look like?
That
is exactly the question architects, patients, volunteers and parents
have worked to answer for the past year about the renovation of MD Anderson Children's Cancer Hospital.
Along
the way, they've learned that having access to an abundance of
electrical outlets is as important as hot coffee. Primary colors aren't
as kid-friendly as originally thought.
Inpatient rooms should be
equipped with more storage, and sicker patients want a quiet space to
wait separate from healthier patients. In addition, young adults want
their own unique area to hang out with peers.
Architects partnered with parents and patients to get the new pediatric floor design right, meeting with the hospital's Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Advisory Council and Family Advisory Council to get feedback on plans and concepts. A bedside perspective Lymphoma
survivor Greg Alquiza, 25, voiced his suggestions for the new pediatric
inpatient floor to architects at the AYA Advisory Council meeting in
June 2011.
"For me, I wanted to see more inspiring stories on the
walls about survivors my age," Alquiza says. "It's also important to
have creative ceiling décor in the rooms and large artistic structures
around the hospital that give patients something else to think about
besides their condition."
By Sara Farris on February 17, 2012 1:09 PM
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When Mary Belle Wooddy began volunteering at MD Anderson Children's Cancer Hospital, the five-year survival rate for children with cancer was less than 60%. Wooddy, who has volunteered in the pediatric playroom for 35 years, has seen that survival rate rise to 80% along with a lot of other changes at the hospital.
Now, the 83-year-old resident of the Memorial area in Houston has hung up her blue volunteer jacket at MD Anderson. She's leaving behind hundreds of smiles she has brought to young patients' faces and is taking with her as many memories.
"I don't see myself as anybody special," Wooddy says. "I just hope I have helped the patients and parents a little along the way."
Making a difference When Wooddy moved to Houston in the 1970s, she was looking for a way to contribute. She soon found that opportunity with her Tri Delta sorority alumni chapter, which had begun a pediatric volunteer program at the Children's Cancer Hospital.
Wooddy recalls that initially when she volunteered, the Children's Cancer Hospital didn't have a playroom designated for children.
"We would purchase toys as a sorority and play with children in the hospital stairwell, while they were waiting on doctor appointments or treatment," she says.
Since then, the importance of play has become a central focus for the children's hospital. With support from MD Anderson Children's Art Project, the Child Life Program was launched and a playroom was built in the pediatric outpatient clinic. Wooddy continued to volunteer and worked alongside child life specialists playing board games and making arts and crafts with the children.
By Sara Farris on February 15, 2012 12:59 PM
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A news story recently in the New York Times
has unveiled a growing concern among pediatric oncologists and health
care institutions at large. The injectable form of preservative free
methotrexate, commonly used to treat pediatric patients with leukemia and osteosarcoma, is in short supply.
The bigger drug shortage picture Drug shortages are an increasingly frequent and serious problem affecting health care organizations across the country.
"A
number of contributing factors are causing these shortages, such as raw
material unavailability, manufacturing difficulties and regulatory
issues, voluntary recalls related to manufacturing problems, changes in
medication formulation, and industry consolidations and economic
decisions," says Wendy Heck, Pharm.D., manager of drug information and
drug use policy at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Regardless of the
cause, drug shortages create great frustration for everyone involved,
including purchasing agents, pharmacists, nurses, physicians, and
patients. Fortunately, not all national drug shortages will go on to
affect MD Anderson.
"We meet weekly to review current drug
shortages. If a shortage does reach MD Anderson, our team works
diligently to develop a management plan to minimize the impact on our
patients," says Joel Lajeunesse, vice president of the Division of
Pharmacy. "For now, we have sufficient supplies of methotrexate for our
patients."
By Sara Farris on February 1, 2012 8:00 AM
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When families first enter the doors of MD Anderson Children's Cancer Hospital,
they have one thing on their minds - eliminating their child's cancer.
What they get is so much more. An entire team, comprised of not just
medical experts, but specialists in education, child life and other supportive services, work to keep their child's life on track. Alaska at arm's length Using a Polycom video conferencing system, students at the Children's Cancer Hospital accredited school have
the opportunity to interact regularly with experts from the Houston Zoo
and Downtown Aquarium to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Video
conferencing allows kids to travel virtually across the country to
places they wouldn't be able to visit while undergoing treatment. In one
of their farthest virtual field trips, patients connected with an
indigenous community from Alaska and learned about their native dances
and cultures. Homework a click away Being able to stay
connected with friends is essential for patients, especially those from
out of town. For many patients, the Polycom system allows them to
connect with their school back home.
For patients who aren't up
for leaving their hospital room, they can view programming from the
classroom or PediDome on a closed-circuit television system. This is a
welcomed resource for patients isolated to their rooms due to
compromised immune systems.
By Sara Farris on October 12, 2011 8:20 AM
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On Sunday, California signed into legislation the nation's toughest law on teens and tanning beds. The law prohibits anyone younger than 18 from using a tanning bed beginning Jan. 1. I sat down this week to discuss the new legislation with Dennis Hughes, M.D., Ph.D., who specializes in sarcomas and skin cancers at MD Anderson Children's Cancer Hospital. In 2009, Texas passed a law prohibiting tanning bed use in children younger than 16.
1)What are your thoughts on the new California bill prohibiting tanning bed use in children younger than 18?
First and foremost, no child younger than 18 needs to be in a tanning bed. There's no reason, medical or societal, for kids to be in a tanning bed. I think this is another good step toward protecting our kids. We already have laws in place protecting them from smoking and drinking as teens, and this runs along those same lines.
2) What are the risks of using a tanning bed while a teen?
People get the bulk of their sun exposure and sunburns by the time they're 18. Premature aging, wrinkling and skin cancer risk all result from this exposure. Prohibiting tanning bed use will help cut down their ultraviolet (UV) exposure at an early age, which in turn will help reduce the risk of premature aging and cancer as adults.
3) Are there benefits to using a tanning bed that this law would be eliminating? For instance, some people say that tanning beds are beneficial for people with skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis.
By Sara Farris on September 30, 2011 3:39 PM
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Eugenie Kleinerman, M.D., head of MD Anderson Children's Cancer Hospital, discusses before Congress what can be done to improve children's access to new agents early on.
As I said before, we have taken our eye off what I believe to be the goal of "cure" to one of "fear of inducing toxicity." Fear of toxicity governs the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and paralyzes the pharmaceutical industry from including children early on in Phase I clinical trials.
Unlike adults, children don't have early access to new agents Phase I trials gradually establish the maximum tolerated dose and define the side effects of the drug at each dose.
These first-in-human Phase I trials are for patients 18 years and older. Once the dose is found, Phase II and III trials investigate the efficacy in specific diseases, and this data, if positive, is used to support approval by the FDA.
Children are not part of this scenario and thus do not have early access. If the company wishes to investigate drug activity in children, it must start the process of Phase I-III all over again, a time-consuming and expensive process. Risk vs. Hope: Who has the authority to decide? Inclusion of patients younger than 18 years old in Phase I trials is blocked because of the fear of side effects. However, just like adults, children who would be eligible for Phase I trials are those with cancer that has not responded or has recurred following the most up-to-date, proven therapy regimens.
By Sara Farris on September 30, 2011 11:04 AM
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On Sept. 23, the House Childhood Cancer Caucus
hosted its Second Annual Childhood Cancer Summit on Capitol Hill in
Washington, D.C. The caucus is co-chaired by Congressmen Michael McCaul
(R-TX) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).
In addition to hosting the summit, McCaul and fellow Congressman G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) introduced the "Creating Hope Act of 2011" legislation that would incentivize pharmaceutical companies to develop new drugs for rare pediatric diseases such as cancer.
Excerpts from Kleinerman's remarks before Congress explain the
challenges and potential solutions to improving the cure rates for
childhood cancer.
Unacceptable treatment In her words:
"Cancer continues to claim
the lives of more children than any other disease. This statistic has
not changed in more than 20 years.
Even more disturbing is that the
actual cure rates for children with acute myeloid leukemia and solid tumors such as sarcomas, brain tumors and neuroblastoma have not improved.
This
is an unacceptable statistic for a disease that claims the lives of so
many of this country's youth. It robs us of future talent and tomorrow's
leaders, tax payers and contributors.
By Sara Farris on September 28, 2011 12:27 PM
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When more than 300 pairs of tiny hands come together to work on an art project, the result can be huge.
This month, patients and families from the MD Anderson Children's Cancer Hospital gathered to unveil their year-long, artistic masterpiece -- the Tree of Life.
The Tree of Life stands nearly 8 feet high and is made of a variety of media including strands of multicolored beads, bark made from hand-colored paper and leaves cut from decorated material.
Under the tree rests a garden of flowers, butterflies, birds and more, all created by pediatric patients and their siblings at MD Anderson through the Arts in Medicine Program.
Every handmade piece of the tree represents the unique journey of each patient or sibling.
For some patients, the Tree of Life was a weekly arts activity that got their minds off treatment and introduced them to other patients.
For families, it was an avenue that connected parents with their children for a fun activity, despite the seriousness of their child's disease.
By Sara Farris on March 23, 2011 9:49 AM
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Students from MD Anderson's Pediatric Education and Creative Arts Program recently visited the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo on an educational field trip. One student, Jessica Weller, wrote an essay recapping the day.
On March 10, a group of us from the Children's Cancer Hospital school went on a field trip to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. When we arrived there it was chilly, but luckily the building was not very far to walk to.
When we got inside, we went to the adventure area and looked at all the animals like cows, pigs, sheep, longhorns and chickens. This was right down my alley because I really like livestock and animals in general. We even saw a video of a calf being born. I would never want to be a cow because it sure did look like it hurt!
The mirror is not always a glowing reflection of one's self. For Jason
Cox, there was a point when he didn't even recognize himself.
