View clinical trials related to Childhood Cancer.
Filter by:Childhood cancers cover a wide range of diseases; leukemia, central nervous system cancers and lymphomas are the most common ones among them. During medical treatment children with cancer are at risk of neuromuscular and musculoskeletal complications such as reduced muscle strength, gross and fine motor performance impairment, decreased energy consumption. These neuromuscular and musculoskeletal complications can affect dynamic balance, endurance and quality of life of the children. Childhood cancers have negative effects on sleep. The aim of this study is to identify the status of sleep, fatigue, and quality of life in children with various types of cancer and to examine the relationship between these conditions.The general situation of children will be determined according to findings from this study.
Expression of the cell cycle regulator p16INK4a increases with age and toxic stressors. In mice, both radiation and chemotherapy are known to increase p16. Due to its influence on age-related regenerative capacity, p16 is an excellent candidate biomarker of physiologic reserve that may identify patients able to withstand the stressor of chemotherapy (low p16) from those unlikely to tolerate chemotherapy (high p16). That is, expression of p16 may predict physiologic, rather than chronologic, age. Such findings could have implications for care of cancer survivors and treatment decision-making in cancer patients. STUDY OBJECTIVE: This is an observational pilot study to determine the feasibility of isolating p16INK4a in CD3+ T lymphocytes in adults treated with chemotherapy for cancer during childhood.
Survivors of childhood cancer are known to be at higher risk of developing premature, serious cardiovascular disease compared with the general population. Hypertension, dyslipidemia, and diabetes increase this risk beyond that attributable to one's original cancer therapy exposures. Research has shown that childhood cancer survivors also have a high burden of underdiagnosis and undertreatment of these potentially modifiable conditions. The goal of this study is to: 1. To determine the prevalence of underdiagnosis and undertreatment of common cardiometabolic conditions (i.e., hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes) in survivors of childhood cancer at high-risk of future serious cardiovascular disease. 2. Among survivors who are found to be underdiagnosed or undertreated, to determine (via randomized clinical trial) the efficacy of an educational intervention to improve control of these cardiometabolic conditions. 3. Determine barriers on among survivors enrolled on the randomized trial and their primary healthcare providers that contribute to undertreatment of the study's targeted cardiometabolic conditions.
The main purpose of this study is to research the comparative effectiveness of two potential models of health care to deliver preventive services and chronic care management to the growing population of adult and pediatric survivors of childhood cancer. The central hypothesis is that survivorship care delivered by a subject's primary care doctor after the subject is empowered with individualized follow-up recommendations prepared by a cancer survivor specialist is similar to care provided in a specialty survival clinic.
Background: Cancer-related fatigue is the most common concern reported by Childhood cancer survivors. Empirical evidence is needed to find out an appropriate strategy for ameliorating its impact. Purposes: To examine the effectiveness of an adventure-based training programme in promoting regular physical activity, reducing fatigue and enhancing quality of life among Hong Kong Chinese childhood cancer survivors. Design and Subjects: A randomised controlled trial (RCT), two-group pre-test and repeated post-test, between subjects design has been conducted. Recruitment of subjects has been carried out in an outpatient clinic, and through the Children's Cancer Foundation and Sunshine Group, which are non-profit voluntary organizations with the aim to provide education and supportive services to parents of Hong Kong Chinese childhood cancer survivors. Intervention: Participants in the experimental group have joined a four-day adventure-based training programme, which contains education talks, a workshop and adventure-based training activities. Those in the placebo control group has received an amount of time and attention (leisure activities organized by a community centre) that mimick that received by the experimental group.
Smart Adult Living After Childhood Cancer (SmartALACC) Online Care Plans: Feasibility and Patient Satisfaction is a pilot project designed to test the feasibility and acceptability of use of an online care plan generator for adult survivors of pediatric cancers. Because of improvements in cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment, there are an estimated 13 million cancer survivors living in the U.S. today, with projected growth to 18 million by 2020 (De Moor). These survivors include survivors of leukemia and lymphoma, as well as solid tumors including breast, colon, testicular and prostate cancers. It also include a subset of patients who are survivors of pediatric cancers, as over 80% of children diagnosed with cancer today are cured. In fact, it is estimated that 1 in every 600 young adults between the ages of 20-35 is a cancer survivor (Dreyer, Hewitt, Greenlee). Cancer patients as a whole, despite improved cure rates, have been shown to receive inadequate medical care as survivors. Comprehensive survivorship care should include routine age appropriate medical care as well as information about prior diagnosis and treatment, and screening for recurrence of their primary malignancy as well as secondary malignancies, and screening for late effects of cancer treatment (Earle, Craig). Adult survivors of pediatric cancer, exposed to life-saving but toxic treatments during times of growth and development, are particularly prone to late effects but also have been shown to have inadequate monitoring and follow up. This is a concern as late effects of treatment are sometimes silent for years or decades after completion of cancer therapy and that adult survivors of childhood cancer, years from their diagnosis and treatment, have been shown to have alarming rates of life threatening chronic health conditions compared to their peers (Oeffinger). Thus, these late effects may emerge during adulthood when patients have moved on from the care of their primary oncologist. Complicating matters, primary care providers, who often assume the care of these patients, may not have the knowledge or tools necessary to appropriately care for survivors of childhood cancer (Suh). National organizations have come together to identify ways to improve quality of and access to long term follow up care for adult survivors of childhood cancer. The Children's Oncology Group published Long Term Follow up guidelines which recommend lifelong risk based follow up care and screening (COG guidelines). In addition, in 2005, the Institute of Medicine published a report, From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition gave recommendations to improve health outcomes of cancer survivors which includes the receipt of a comprehensive care summary and follow up plan to aid in appropriate risk based follow up care (Hewitt). Despite these recommendations childhood cancer survivors knowledge about past diagnosis and treatment and engagement in follow up care is suboptimal (Kaden-Lottick, Nathan). It has been demonstrated that pediatric cancer survivors are not receiving care summaries, and thus may try to find appropriate follow up information via the other sources such as the internet (Casillas). Oncolife, a free online tool to create survivorship care plans, was created in May 2007 (Hill 2009), and has been housed at maintained at the University of Pennsylvania since then. This tool has shown to be feasible way to provide information and care plans to survivors of adult cancers. In addition, survivors who have used the resource, state that it will, or has already, positively influenced communication about cancer related follow up with their healthcare team (Hill 2013). The study aim is to adapt Oncolife to provide individualized information for adult survivors of childhood cancer with the unique recommendations for long term follow up for pediatric cancer survivors. Oncolife has already been collecting data on plans created by adult survivors of adult cancers and has been reviewed by the IRB previously (IRB#806368 and #811528 note: previously called Oncolink). Adaption of Oncolife to meet the needs of adult survivors of childhood cancer will improve access to high quality electronic health information as patients may find long term follow up guidelines cumbersome or largely irrelevant to their needs depending on their specific exposures. Individualizing the available information to a particular survivor will allow for better understanding of and improved adherence to recommended cancer related follow up care. We propose to develop survivorship care plans in a way that will most benefit users, thus after creation of the Smart Adult Living After Childhood Cancer care plan we will ask for patient input via survey immediately after receipt of their care plan and in a one month follow up survey.
This pilot clinical trial studies how well positron emission tomography (PET)/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) works compared to PET/computed tomography (CT) in diagnosing younger patients with cancer. PET/MRI and PET/CT are procedures that combine the pictures from a PET scan and an MRI scan or a CT scan. The PET and MRI scans or PET and CT scans are done at the same time with the same machine. The combined scans give more detailed pictures of areas inside the body than either scan gives by itself. It is not yet known whether PET/MRI works better than PET/CT in diagnosing younger patients with cancer.
Today about 80% childhood cancer patients become long-time survivors. In spite of the high cure rates the diagnosis cancer is associated with a variety of disease and treatment-related psychological and physical impairments mostly present into adulthood. So the attention has to focus on the improvement of these problems such as motor limitation, dysfunction of the cardiovascular system, reduced muscle strength, overweight, osteoporosis and diminished quality of life (Qol). Although exercisel intervention studies in this field are generally scarce, the results of these studies are promising. Up to now studies during the acute phase of treatment are missing almost completely. The aim of this feasibility study is to evaluate the potential benefits of a modular exercise intervention program for childhood cancer patients startunf in parallel with treatment and longlasting for one year. Across two years cancer patients of the Children's Hospital of the University Clinic of Heidelberg aged 5-21 years, free of any contraindications for physical activity will be recruited. All participants are asked to complete a physical assessment battery (strength, endurance and balance capacity, posture control, functional mobility, range of motion) and additionally two questionnaires concerning Qol and motivation, at baseline and every three months following one year
To investigate whether a home-based psychosocial family intervention that takes place shortly after ending the primary medical treatment can help families adjust to their cancer-related psychological issues.
The proposed study is part of a career development award. The first two phases of research involve collaborating with adult survivors of childhood cancer representing both sexes and three ethnic/racial groups (African American, Hispanic, and White). THe collaboration will focus upon developing educational material that is helpful in teaching survivors about health risks related to cancer treatments and about survivorship care. The third phase is a randomized controlled trial that will randomly (like a flip of coin)place survivors into one of two groups. One group will meet in -person with a group leader three times, once each week over three weeks. The other group will receive an information packet that contains websites, books, and resources similar to content provided in-person within a group format to the other group. The goal is to help adult survivors get involved in specialized healthcare so they can remain healthy. This involves getting a copy of their medical record to understand what treatments they received and working with health providers to get an individualized survivorship care plan.