Stand Up To Cancer

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. SU2C Stands Up with the thousands of children diagnosed with cancer every year and the families who support them.

There are 12,500 new cases of cancer in children every year and 2,500 children die of cancer each year. Childhood cancers have increased by nearly 30 percent in the last two decades. Though pediatric cancer kills more children in the United States than any other disease, it makes up only 1 percent of all cancers, said Dr. Howard Katzenstein of the Aflac Cancer Center in Georgia and Emory University. Since 1980, only one new cancer drug has been approved for children; 50 have been approved for adults, and most children are given adult treatments in child-size doses. He said researchers and the pharmaceutical industry needed to invest in finding the cause of childhood cancers and developing better treatments with fewer side effects. "Children are not just small adults," he said. "They're different. They handle drugs differently. They have different side effects."
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/person-week-mollie-ward-cancer-crusader/story?id=11665006&page=1

In the U.S., when a company receives FDA approval for a drug that targets a neglected disease, it gets a voucher that can be used to get priority review from the FDA on another, larger market drug, which would speed up the approval review process and could lead to the more lucrative medicine hitting the market sooner. In August, a bill was introduced in the Senate to extend the priority review vouchers to include some pediatric rare diseases, such as cancer. The legislation was one of the key topics at last week's pediatric cancer summit run by the Pediatric Cancer Caucus, which works with legislators. Nancy Goodman, who lost a 10-year-old son to cancer in 2009 and whose Kids v Cancer group helped drive the effort to expand vouchers to include pediatric rare diseases, says about the potential number of vouchers, "That's the million dollar question." But even one voucher a year, she adds, would represent "a sea-change for kids with cancer and rare diseases."
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2010/09/21/need-for-speed-how-to-get-faster-drug-reviews-in-europe/

The imaging tests widely used in children's cancer treatment can expose some kids to potentially concerning levels of radiation, according to a recent study at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. The findings, based on 150 pediatric cancer patients, offer a first look at the radiation doses these children can accumulate from various types of imaging tests during the course of their treatment. Medical imaging is a necessary part of children's cancer treatment, said the study's leader, Dr. Karen E. Thomas, and the benefits of a given test are likely to far outweigh the potential long-term effects on the risk of second cancer. That said, parents of children undergoing cancer treatment should not be afraid to ask questions, according to Thomas. That includes asking why a given test is being done, and whether a radiation-free alternative -- like an MRI or ultrasound -- could provide the same information.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68Q51520100927

For the first time, researchers have found a link between obesity and a common type of childhood cancer. The team of doctors discovered that being very overweight can aid in the development of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) - a new clue in the efforts to determine the true causes of childhood blood cancers. Previous research done at Childrens Hospital L.A. also reveals obesity could make treating certain blood cancers more difficult. "If the leukemia cells are hidden in fat and the chemotherapy can't effectively treat them there then that could be a reason for resistance," said Dr. Mettelman. "This was the first study to show that obesity itself actually accelerates leukemia progression." Experts agree the findings just add to the long list of reasons to encourage a fit and healthy lifestyle in children.
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/health/your_health&id=7670509