This post was originally published on Discoveries, the blog of Boston Children’s Hospital. Jake was diagnosed with his first cancer — osteosarcoma — in 2007 when he was only 16 years old. Meanwhile, his mom was being treated for recurrent cancer and his brother also would soon be diagnosed with cancer. Within the space of a few … Read more
A version of this article was published on Discoveries, the blog of Boston Children’s Hospital. Children diagnosed with low-grade astrocytomas, the most common type of pediatric brain tumor, have more than a 90 percent chance of being cured. Yet in the process, the standard treatments (neurosurgery and chemotherapy) for this form of tumor can cause serious … Read more
This post was originally published on Discoveries, the blog of Boston Children’s Hospital. Glioblastoma, a cancer that arises in the brain’s supporting glial cells, is one of the worst diagnoses a child can receive. The grade IV, highly malignant tumor aggressively infiltrates healthy brain tissue, and most children die of the disease within one to … Read more
This post originally appeared on Discoveries, the blog of Boston Children’s Hospital. The Downey family was enjoying the holidays with family in Guatemala in 2017 when their 13-month-old daughter Stella started having unusual symptoms. “She was very clingy towards me and not acting like herself,” says Stella’s mom, Fiorella, a child life specialist at Boston … Read more
Immunotherapy refers to treatments that use the body’s immune system to combat diseases. Immuno-oncology focuses on efforts to use the immune system as a weapon against cancer. The immune system is a collection of organs, tissues, specialized cells, and substances that protect the body against infection and disease. While the immune system can often handle very small … Read more
It was quite a spring for Andrew Hedberg. The rising high school sophomore made the varsity golf team and was elected class president for the upcoming school year. Most importantly, the bone cancer that once threatened his left leg and his life remained in remission. All of this validated the decision that Andrew’s family made … Read more
Medically reviewed by Junne Kamihara, MD, PhD Inherited cancers account for at least 5 to 10 percent of all pediatric cancers. The same advances in technology that have enabled scientists to decode the human genome now allow doctors to determine when a child has been born with an error (mutation) in a specific gene that … Read more
Andrew Hong, MD, knows the toll of rare childhood cancers all too well. As a pediatric oncologist at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, he’s cared for a number of children who develop unusual, aggressive cancer. One teenager with a deadly type of kidney cancer called renal medullary carcinoma (RMC) left a particularly deep … Read more
This post was originally published on Thriving, Boston Children’s Hospital’s pediatric health blog. It started with muscle aches in her shoulders, almost like spasms, while she slept. The pain was awful, and nothing seemed to bring relief. But because Erin Holmberg is a varsity three-sport athlete—soccer, basketball and track—everyone assumed it was muscular pain caused … Read more
This post originally appeared on Vector, Boston Children’s Hospital’s science and clinical innovation blog. Children’s cancers pose unique challenges. They’re not caused by the same kinds of genetic mutations that cause adult cancers, and only a minority of their mutations can be targeted with drugs. In a recent study, Kimberly Stegmaier, MD, at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer … Read more
Steph and Jake Holbrook know the date of every important moment in their son’s life: William’s first steps, his first words, and even his first Boston Red Sox game. Another date they’ll forever remember: Jan. 17, 2018, when they were told that William—then 10 months old—had a rare type of liver cancer. “I couldn’t believe … Read more
This post was originally published on Vector, Boston Children Hospital’s science and clinical innovation blog. In 1938, Louis K. Diamond, MD, and Kenneth Blackfan, MD, at Boston Children’s Hospital described a severe congenital anemia that they termed “hypoplastic” (literally, “underdeveloped”) because of the bone marrow’s inability to produce mature, functioning red blood cells. Eighty years … Read more
After undergoing a promising new treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), Cole Malone is back to doing what he loves: playing on a flag football team with his twin brother, Michael. Cole and Michael Malone, who are 14, already know plenty about teamwork. Michael served as a perfect-match donor when Cole underwent a stem cell … Read more
The first year of a baby’s life is filled with milestones, but between sitting and standing up, holding his bottle, and playing peek-a-boo, there was one thing Landon Cato developed that his parents never anticipated: cancer. Landon was just shy of eight months old in July 2016 when his parents took him to the pediatrician, … Read more
Pediatric oncologist Kimberly Stegmaier, MD, draws on Dana-Farber’s network of experts to work together on new treatment options for children with cancer.
The differences between cancers in adults and children go well beyond age. In many respects, they are markedly different diseases.
Stem cell transplants are performed in order to give a patient new blood cells, as well as a new immune system. It is this new immune system that plays a key role in making certain blood cancers go away and stay away.
New technologies are being used to analyze exactly how DIPG develops in the first place.
An interventional radiology procedure stabilized the growth of a toddler’s rare liver tumor until he was able to receive a life-saving liver transplant. Today, he is healthy and thriving.
Pediatric leukemia patient Emma Duffin is in remission, thanks to the stem cell transplant made possible by her brother, Alexander.