The Childhood Cancer Blog
The Childhood Cancer Blog
What if a specific type of diet could magnify the impact of a targeted childhood cancer treatment? That’s the question Dr. Palaniraja Thandapani had after his initial findings that T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) relied upon a specific amino acid, called valine, to grow.
“That is an essential amino acid, and usually you acquire them from your food, it's not like your body can make them,” said Dr. Thandapani. “So that led to the idea that it can be targeted with the amount of availability of this amino acid in diet.”
This research was the genesis of Dr. Thandapani... Read More
Psychologist-in-training Katie Davis was amazed by the resilience of families during a childhood cancer diagnosis, but she also knew just how often mental health issues like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were lurking beneath the surface.
PTSD is a condition in which persistent mental and emotional stress occurs as a result of witnessing or experiencing a distressing event. About one to two-thirds of siblings of children with cancer experience moderate to severe symptoms of cancer-related PTSD.
Katie knew she wanted to look at the effects of childhood cancer from a... Read More
When Dr. Yang Ding was a student at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, Dr. John Maris gave her class a lecture on neuroblastoma and then introduced a pair of unexpected guest speakers: Liz and Jay Scott, the parents of Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) founder Alex Scott.
She recalls the day she learned about ALSF very clearly: “I remember hearing about Alex's story and how she was just really spunky and then turned the lemonade stand into this really amazing, long-lasting foundation to find cures for kids like her. That was really impressive.” ... Read More
Pages
