Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Effects Of Socioeconomic Status On Children With Well-Differentiated Thyroid Cancer., Evan F Garner, Ilan I Maizlin, Matthew B Dellinger, Kenneth W Gow, Melanie Goldfarb, Adam B Goldin, John J Doski, Monica Langer, Jed G Nuchtern, Sanjeev A Vasudevan, Mehul V Raval, Elizabeth A Beierle

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

BACKGROUND: Well-differentiated thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy in children. Adult literature has demonstrated socioeconomic disparities in patients undergoing thyroidectomy, but the effects of socioeconomic status on the management of pediatric well-differentiated thyroid cancer remains poorly understood.

METHODS: Patients ≤21 years of age with well-differentiated thyroid cancer remains were reviewed from the National Cancer Data Base. Three socioeconomic surrogate variables were identified: insurance type, median income, and educational quartile. Tumor characteristics, diagnostic intervals, and clinical outcomes were compared within each socioeconomic surrogate variable.

RESULTS: A total of 9,585 children with well-differentiated thyroid cancer remains were reviewed. In multivariate …

Impact Of Time Between Diagnosis And Slnb On Outcomes In Cutaneous Melanoma., Daniel W Nelson, Stacey Stern, David E Elashoff, Robert Elashoff, John F Thompson, Nicola Mozzillo, Omgo E Nieweg, Harald J Hoekstra, Alistair J Cochran, Mark B Faries

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

BACKGROUND: Hypothetically, delay between melanoma diagnosis and SLNB could affect outcomes, either adversely by allowing growth and dissemination of metastases, or beneficially by allowing development of an anti-melanoma immune response. Available data are conflicting about the effect of SLNB delay on patient survival. Our objective was to determine whether delay between initial diagnosis and SLNB affects outcomes in patients with cutaneous melanoma.

STUDY DESIGN: We performed query and analysis of a large prospectively maintained database of patients with primary cutaneous melanomas undergoing SLNB. An independent dataset from MSLT-1 (Multicenter Selective Lymphadenectomy Trial-1) was used for validation. Primary outcomes included disease-free …

Treatment Pathway Of Bone Sarcoma In Children, Adolescents, And Young Adults, Damon R. Reed, Masanori Hayashi, Lars M. Wagner, Odion Binitie, Diana A. Steppan, Andrew S. Brohl, Eric T. Shinohara, Julia A. Bridge, David M. Loeb, Scott C. Borinstein, Michael S. Isakoff

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

When pediatric, adolescent, and young adult patients present with a bone sarcoma, treatment decisions, especially after relapse, are complex and require a multidisciplinary approach. This review presents scenarios commonly encountered in the therapy of bone sarcomas with the goal of objectively presenting a consensus, multidisciplinary management approach. Little variation was found in the authors' group with respect to local control or systemic therapy. Clinical trials were universally prioritized in all settings. Decisions regarding relapse therapies in the absence of a clinical trial had very minor variations initially, but a consensus was reached after a literature review and discussion. This review …

Incidence Of Cns Tumors In Appalachian Children, Bin Huang, Alice Luo, Eric B. Durbin, Ellen Lycan, Thomas Tucker, Quan Chen, Craig Horbinski, John L. Villano

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Determine whether the risk of astrocytomas in Appalachian children is higher than the national average. We compared the incidence of pediatric brain tumors in Appalachia versus non-Appalachia regions, covering years 2000–2011. The North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) collects population-based data from 55 cancer registries throughout U.S. and Canada. All invasive primary (i.e. non-metastatic tumors), with age at diagnosis 0–19 years old, were included. Nearly 27,000 and 2200 central nervous system (CNS) tumors from non-Appalachia and Appalachia, respectively comprise the cohorts. Age-adjusted incidence rates of each main brain tumor subtype were compared. The incidence rate of pediatric CNS …

Family Strategies To Support Siblings Of Pediatric Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Patients., Taylor E. White, Kristopher A. Hendershot, Margie D. Dixon, Wendy Pelletier, Ann Haight, Kristin Stegenga, Melissa A. Alderfer, Lydia Cox, Jeffrey M. Switchenko, Pamela Hinds, Rebecca D. Pentz

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

OBJECTIVE: To describe the strategies families report using to address the needs and concerns of siblings of children, adolescents, and young adults undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT).

METHODS: A secondary semantic analysis was conducted of 86 qualitative interviews with family members of children, adolescents, and young adults undergoing HSCT at 4 HSCT centers and supplemented with a primary analysis of 38 additional targeted qualitative interviews (23 family members, 15 health care professionals) conducted at the primary center. Analyses focused on sibling issues and the strategies families use to address these issues.

RESULTS: The sibling issues identified included: (1) feeling …

Natural Compounds Targeting Major Cell Signaling Pathways: A Novel Paradigm For Osteosarcoma Therapy., Pablo Angulo, Gaurav Kaushik, Dharmalingam Subramaniam, Prasad Dandawate, Kathleen Neville, Katherine Chastain, Shrikant Anant

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary bone cancer affecting children and adolescents worldwide. Despite an incidence of three cases per million annually, it accounts for an inordinate amount of morbidity and mortality. While the use of chemotherapy (cisplatin, doxorubicin, and methotrexate) in the last century initially resulted in marginal improvement in survival over surgery alone, survival has not improved further in the past four decades. Patients with metastatic osteosarcoma have an especially poor prognosis, with only 30% overall survival. Hence, there is a substantial need for new therapies. The inability to control the metastatic progression of this localized cancer stems …

Yap And The Hippo Pathway In Pediatric Cancer., Atif Ahmed, Abdalla D. Mohamed, Melissa Gener, Weijie Li, Eugenio Taboada

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

The Hippo pathway is an important signaling pathway that controls cell proliferation and apoptosis. It is evolutionarily conserved in mammals and is stimulated by cell-cell contact, inhibiting cell proliferation in response to increased cell density. During early embryonic development, the Hippo signaling pathway regulates organ development and size, and its functions result in the coordinated balance between proliferation, apoptosis, and differentiation. Its principal effectors, YAP and TAZ, regulate signaling by the embryonic stem cells and determine cell fate and histogenesis. Dysfunction of this pathway contributes to cancer development in adults and children. Emerging studies have shed light on the upregulation …

Novel Hla-Dp Region Susceptibility Loci Associated With Severe Acute Gvhd., Rakesh K. Goyal, S J. Lee, T Wang, M Trucco, M Haagenson, S R. Spellman, M Verneris, R E. Ferrell

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Despite HLA allele matching, significant acute GvHD remains a major barrier to successful unrelated donor BMT. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify recipient and donor genes associated with the risk of acute GvHD. A case-control design (grade III-IV versus no acute GvHD) and pooled GWA approach was used to study European-American recipients with hematological malignancies who received myeloablative conditioning non-T-cell-depleted first transplantation from HLA-A, -B, -C, -DRB1, -DQB1 allele level (10/10) matched unrelated donors. DNA samples were divided into three pools and tested in triplicate using the Affymetrix Genome-wide SNP Array 6.0. We identified three novel susceptibility …

Pediatric Ovarian Growing Teratoma Syndrome., Rebecca M. Rentea, Aaron Varghese, Atif Ahmed, Alexander Kats, Michelle Manalang, Tazim Dowlut-Mcelroy, Richard J. Hendrickson

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Ovarian immature teratoma is a germ cell tumor that comprises less than 1% of ovarian cancers and is treated with surgical debulking and chemotherapy depending on stage. Growing teratoma syndrome (GTS) is the phenomenon of the growth of mature teratoma elements with normal tumor markers during or following chemotherapy for treatment of a malignant germ cell tumor. These tumors are associated with significant morbidity and mortality due to invasive and compressive growth as well as potential for malignant transformation. Current treatment modality is surgical resection. We discuss a 12-year-old female who presented following resection of a pure ovarian immature teratoma …

Health-Related Quality Of Life (Hr-Qol) And Chronic Health Conditions In Survivors Of Childhood Acute Myeloid Leukemia (Aml) With Down Syndrome (Ds): A Report From The Children's Oncology Group., Kris Ann P. Schultz, Lu Chen, Alicia Kunin-Batson, Zhengjia Chen, William G. Woods, A S. Gamis, Toana Kawashima, Kevin C. Oeffinger, H Stacy Stacy Nicholson, Joseph P. Neglia

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Survival rates for children with Down syndrome (DS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are high; however, little is known regarding the health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) of these survivors. Individuals who survived ≥5 years following diagnosis of childhood AML were invited to complete parent or patient-report surveys measuring HR-QOL and chronic health conditions. In total, 26 individuals with DS had a median age at diagnosis of 1.8 years (range, 0.77 to 10.9 y) and median age at interview of 15 years (range, 8.3 to 27.6 y). Participants with DS and AML were compared with AML survivors without DS whose caregiver …