Pediatric brain tumor survivors (PBTS) experience difficulties with social adjustment. These difficulties have been found to worsen with time and impact survivors' quality of life, school outcomes and future employment. Social adjustment difficulties are a serious health risk that have been found to be comparable to the health risks associated with drinking and smoking. The ability to improve social adjustment in PBTS has been limited by a lack of understanding of the predictors of social adjustment difficulties in this population.
Principal Investigator Name:
Fiona Schulte, PhD
Project Title:
The Role of Affective and Cognitive-Executive Processes and Structural Brain Abnormalities on Social Adjustment in Pediatric Brain Tumor Survivors
Many survivors of childhood leukemia have problems with attention and learning after completing therapy that cause difficulty in school and at home. Survivors are monitored with cognitive testing that starts during therapy and continues after therapy in order to identify these problems early. Researchers have studied the results of this testing to learn which children are at greatest risk for problems and have designed interventions to will slow down or eliminate problems.
Principal Investigator Name:
Lisa Jacola, PhD
Project Title:
Neurocognitive Outcomes in Survivors of Childhood Leukemia with Down Syndrome
Childhood cancer patients and their parents are faced with significant stress at the time of diagnosis, during treatment and over the course of recovery. The stress of cancer and its treatment can lead to significant emotional distress for many families. However, most families do not have access to programs that offer support for coping with cancer-related stress.
Project Goal
Principal Investigator Name:
Bruce Compas, PhD
Project Title:
Enhancing Coping and Communication in Children with Cancer and Their Parents: A Novel Internet-Based Intervention
The delivery of psychosocial care to youth with cancer and their families lags behind existing scientific knowledge about the challenges experienced by families. While evidence-based intervention approaches are available, they are not offered in a systematic manner.
Project Goal
Principal Investigator Name:
Anne Kazak, PhD
Project Title:
Screen to Intervene: A Family-Centered Approach to Identifying and Communicating Family Psychosocial Risk and Developing Evidence Based Clinical Pathways in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
Leukemia is the most common pediatric cancer. While some types of leukemia respond very well to current treatment, others, such as AML, still have unacceptably low cure rates of 40-50%. A better understanding of the way leukemia evolves is necessary in order to develop new treatments.
Joshua is intelligent and has many hobbies. He was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma at age 17 after having random fevers and night sweats. After 6 months of treatment, he reached remission! He now wishes to go to medical school for oncology work.
