Does your child have cancer?

communityreply@lls.org — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:55:51 GMT

If you are the mother of a child with leukemia or lymphoma, you know how it feels to go from being able to fix all of your child's scrapes and bruises one day to grappling with a whole new world of doctors and nurses, chemo, radiation therapy and blood counts the next.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is here to support mothers with information and resources. Please think of us as an extention of the support system you may already have. These resources can help you and your child as you look forward to recovery.

Learn more on our web page about Childhood Blood Cancers.
Free Booklet: Coping With Childhood Leukemia and Lymphoma – You can download a .pdf or order a free printed copy of this booklet that provides guidance from oncology social workers, nurses and pychologists on how to deal with a pediatric cancer diagnosis.
Free Booklet: Learning and Living with Cancer – Practical advice to help you advocate for your child’s educational needs.
Free Coloring Books – You may want to download or order Pictures of My Journey and/or The Stem Cell Transplant Coloring Book.
Free Fact Sheet: Long-Term and Late Effects of Treatment for Childhood Leukemia or Lymphoma
Free Booklet: Financial Health Matters – Learn how to deal more effectively with some of the financial challenges faced by families dealing with cancer.
LLS Blood Cancer Discussion Boards – Sometimes one of the best things to do for yourself is to connect with other parents that are dealing or have dealt with pediatric cancer. Join the conversation in the My Child Has Cancer board.

We have many other resources which you can learn about by going to www.LLS.org or calling and speaking to one of our information specialists at (800) 955-4572.

Not a mother, but want to say thank you to one? Learn more about how you can honor a special mother in your life this Mother’s Day.

From Dr. Barton Kamen: Be Your Child's Best Advocate

communityreply@lls.org — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:26:34 GMT

The following is from our Chief Medical Officer, Barton Kamen, M.D., Ph.D.

Cancer … What a frightening word for anyone to hear, especially a parent! There are about 10,000 new cases of cancer in children under age 15 in the United States each year.. This is less then 1% of all cancers diagnosed annually in our country. Even so, that is not a consolation for you as a parent because no child is a statistic. In the more than 30 years that I have been a pediatric oncologist great progress has been made in treating children. In fact, the majority of children can be cured and today some treatment plans are designed to minimize treatment, hopefully without decreasing the cure rate. The goal is to eliminate or at least minimize the long term or late effects of treatment.

When we say cancer, we really mean CANCERS─plural. Unlike adults, in whom the common cancers are of breast, colon, lung and prostate, childhood cancers are predominantly two related diseases, leukemia and lymphoma, followed by brain tumors. In fact approximately 40% of all pediatric cancers are blood and related diseases, and about 20% are brain tumors.

Much of the progress in treating children with cancer is at least in part due to the fact that the pediatric oncology specialists around the world have worked together in cooperative groups so that large clinical trials could be done. Since, fortunately, the total number of patients is relatively small, this cooperation has allowed information about the diseases and the treatments to be collected and then used to formulate better treatment plans.

The majority of pediatric patients in this country are treated in centers that have established teams of professionals: physicians (including hematologists, oncologists, radiotherapists and surgeons), nurses, social workers, psychologists, child life specialists and teachers. This is to insure the best care for the child and family, which means that we are not simply treating a disease. I have always made a point with students and residents that we treat people not diseases, and in our case, we treat children. That means we also have to provide support and guidance to siblings and parents.

Yes, cancer is a horrific, scary word to hear, but I am glad it is 2008 and not decades earlier, when I started. No matter what type of cancer you or your child have─whether it is a disease with an outstanding record of successful treatment, or one of the more difficult to treat types of cancer─I suggest that you have your treatment at a center in which there is a whole team available to assist you on the journey. And that this team is associated with an even larger team. For difficult to treat cancers, there is often a clinical trial that is an option for you or your child. My advice to any parent, even though I do not like to be called a healthcare provider and do not consider my patients to be customers, is: You should be your child’s best advocate and as a consumer, ask questions and get as much information as you want. There is no such question as a bad question. And usually, for most questions about serious illness, your imagination about what is happening is often worse then the reality.

Learn more about childhood leukemia and lymphoma.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Blog

Does your child have cancer?

From Dr. Barton Kamen: Be Your Child's Best Advocate