Childhood Cancer Awareness Month: What You Need to Know

For Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, here’s a round-up of the latest news and updates in this disease space:

1. St. Jude — whose mission is to cure children’s catastrophic diseases – is not only providing treatment, but also conducting research and making new medicines. Now, in addition to improving its patient care and research capabilities, it plans to help cure more children with cancer.
2. Although survival among adolescents and young adults with cancer has improved over recent decades, disparities within the severity of stage, race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status are still just as prevalent.
3. On the “CURE Talks Cancer” podcast, we spoke with Micah Bernstein, a 7-year-old who has already fought cancer three times. Listen to our interview and hear how he hopes to be an inspiration to other children.
4. The Childhood Solid Tumor Network is helping scientists to expand treatment options for youngsters with these cancers.
5. An antioxidant approved for use as an antidote to cyanide poisoning may also prevent hearing loss, a potential side effect of the chemotherapy drug cisplatin, in children who take the anticancer drug.