It’s September. The summer is drawing to a close. As the air begins to get a little chilly (even here in L.A.), our thoughts habitually start to shift toward fall flavors like pumpkin spice or apple cider and the colors of autumn leaves. Around this time, we also have the opportunity to honor stories of tremendous toughness, resilience, and grit. And, no, I do not just mean what happens on a football field. 

This month we recognized and gave a voice to children bravely battling childhood cancer. I have the unique privilege to witness and play a small part in helping them navigate their journeys on a daily basis. It remains awe-inspiring to see the hope in their inner strength and innocent determination to get better. I marvel at how simple acts of kindness, and just wanting to be a kid and play, go such a long way in getting through the intense chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery often involved in their care. They do more with so much less support in the healthcare system than most folks realize. 

But despite advances in how we understand and approach the diagnosis and treatment of childhood cancer, for every survivor we celebrate this month, we also take a moment to remember the heroic stories of the children who fought hard but, unfortunately, are no longer with us.

Childhood cancer awareness is about recognizing that we all can and will do better for these children. At home. At the hospital. In the research lab. We all continue to fight alongside childhood cancer warriors. This month and beyond, I hope that we can all join together to amplify and empower stories that celebrate the incredible courage of kids undergoing cancer treatment and their families, as well as the steadfast commitment of pediatric oncology healthcare providers, patient advocates, and researchers working tirelessly to make an impact against childhood cancer. Together we can continue to innovate and strive to achieve excellence and improved access to the resources and advancements that these kids deserve.

About Dr. Steven Jonas

Dr. Steven J. Jonas, MD/PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) David Geffen School of Medicine, and an investigator at UCLA’s California NanoSystems Institute and Broad Stem Cell Research Center. His laboratory explores new ways to probe and engineer cells that leverage advances in microfluidics, nanofabrication, and gene editing approaches. In his clinical practice, he serves as an attending physician at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital where he directs the care of patients with a variety of hematologic and oncologic conditions as well as those undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and/or gene therapy. He also serves as the Associate Program Director of the UCLA Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellowship Program where he has fostered an inclusive scientific training environment that guides the next generation of pediatric hematology/oncology physicians as they embark on their research journeys.

Dr. Jonas has received several awards for his research, including the 2024 Society of Pediatric Research Young Investigator Award, a Director’s Early Independence Award from the National Institutes of Health, and has been the recipient of Young Investigator and Scholar awards from the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research. Since 2017, his lab has participated in The Million Mile, raising nearly $80,000 for childhood cancer research. 

About Childhood Cancer

Each year, more than 17,000 children are diagnosed with cancer in the United States. While cancer names and types like leukemia or lymphoma may share a name with adult cancers, childhood cancers are different and often require different treatments. The average age at diagnosis for a child with cancer is 10 years old (for an adult it is 66 years old). Children who have had treatment and survive childhood cancer are 95% more likely than their peers without a past cancer diagnosis to experience a significant health side effect by the time they are 45 years old. Learn more about childhood cancer and the work Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation is doing to make a difference here.