When Dr. Donald Pinkel graduated from medical school at the University of Buffalo in 1951, the world was a pretty dark place for kids with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). They didn’t live long after diagnosis, and experts in the field of blood cancer were convinced the disease was incurable.
Pediatric Cancer
The shock of a cancer diagnosis is a jarring, life-altering experience that, unfortunately, is not exclusive to adults. Over 10,000 American children under the age of 15 will be diagnosed this year, and rates continue to rise. Dr. Elena Ladas has done extensive research on therapies such as acupuncture, massage and dietary therapy and how they may be able to assist in reducing treatment-associated side effects.
After spending nearly two decades as a pediatric oncologist and clinical investigator at New York Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center, Kara Kelly, MD, once again calls Western New York home. An alumnus of the University at Buffalo, Dr. Kelly returned to the area in February to lead Roswell Park’s Department of Pediatric Oncology.
As Childhood Cancer Awareness Month comes to a close, we want to stress the importance of long-term follow-up care and the benefits of the pediatric survivor’s clinic.
At age seven, I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. After my main surgery to remove the cancer, I had to go through weeks of chemotherapy and never stopped asking questions during the process.
During your teenage years, physical changes are a part of normal development. You may notice a difference in the way your body looks, feels and performs. But for teen cancer survivors, these changes are especially difficult.
Children with brain tumors or with acute lymphoblastic leukemia are most likely to have late effects in the brain, but any child treated for cancer is at a higher risk for learning disabilities, memory loss and social distress.
When eight-year-old Luke Gworek flips a switch during Roswell Park’s 2014 Tree of Hope celebration, nearly 75,000 lights will flash to music and shine from a towering tree in Kaminski Park. He can’t wait for the evening to arrive.