Alix Seif, MD, MPH, an attending physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, is two decades into her career as a leading childhood leukemia researcher, but her journey into unlocking the potential of immunotherapy was fate from the start. During her first year of oncology fellowship, her very first patient was a young baby with relapsed acute myeloid leukemia. He was waiting for new treatment ideas after frontline therapies had failed. Then, he developed an infection, one that could’ve been life-threatening. Instead... Read More
The Childhood Cancer Blog
Welcome to The Childhood Cancer Blog
from Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation!
Alix Seif, MD, MPH, an attending physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and ALSF Grantee
CJ and Hope Miller
They never thought it would happen twice.
Hope and CJ Miller are as close as siblings can be. Less than a year apart in age, they enjoy pranking each other and simply being each other’s best friend.
When Hope was in seventh grade, a test in her PE class led to an early dismissal from school. Her blood pressure and pulse were elevated, and she had difficulty breathing. Over the next three months, a visit to her primary care physician and four bronchoscopies would confirm a diagnosis: mucoepidermoid carcinoma, a rare form of lung cancer that made itself at home in Hope's... Read More
Then and Now: Cass was just 10 years old, when her brother Jimmy was diagnosed with leukemia.
Cass Butler was just 10 when her brother was diagnosed with childhood cancer. That experience changed the entire trajectory of her life.
“I didn’t understand because he looked and felt fine,” remembers Cass.
The hospital became a home away from home for Cass and her family. Every evening, Cass, her other brother and father would make the drive to the hospital for dinner as a family. Cass knew all the places to hide and the best treats to get at the hospital.
“Pediatric cancer changes a family in a way nothing else really can,” said Cass, who is now 26 years old... Read More
