You know the names at the top of the list in cancer research: The Mayo Clinic, Boston General Hospital, Johns Hopkins, Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. Now you can add a few more names but they won’t come from institutions of higher learning. In fact, the medical advances from these researchers aren’t even from a university or a hospital at all. They are from a group of high school kids who are making some amazing advances in medicine at a very early age. 

The Cancer Eating Nanoparticle

Most 17-year old teenage girls spend more time shopping for new cloths, a new hairstyle, and a new boyfriend than on almost anything else, especially their studies. However this is not the case with 17 year old Angela Zhang, a high school student that spends most of her free time using bio engineering sciences and research to find new ways to fight cancer. In her research, the young miss Zhang discovered a nanoparticle that she says is kind of like a Swiss army knife being used in the fight against cancer. The particle will detect cancer cells, eradicate them and then monitor the treatment response. Her goal in the research was to find a targeted treatment for cancer. Angela Zhang’s little after-school project earned her top honors at the Siemen’s Competition in Math, Science, and Technology and a $100,000 scholarship.

Better Prosthetics

The team prize winners in medical technical advances went to Ziyuan Liu and Cassee Cain, seniors at Oak Ridge High School in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The two young technicians put their heads together to transform an Xbox 360 into a sensor that analyzes the walks of amputees and joint replacement patients who wear prosthetics. The judges at the competition commented that this technology could help prosthetic manufacturer’s design more efficient products and to drastically reduce medical costs by allowing clinicians to perform diagnostics and monitor patient progress from virtually anywhere. Tele-health is already becoming an accepted medical practice so expansion into prothetic aftercare could help lower costs and raise the quality care for recovering patients.

Advances in Cancer Cures

Curing cancer must be on the minds of these aspiring  young doctors and scientists because so much of their research was directed at this deadly disease. This past March the Intel Science Talent Search awarded Nithin Tumma of Fort Gratiot, Michigan a $100,000 scholarship for his research on fighting cancer.   Tumma is said to have found a way to potentially slow the spread of cancer and decrease cancer malignancy by inhibiting specific proteins. Another winner of the Intel scholarship, this one of $20,000, went to Alissa Zhang for devising a way to monitor diabetic glucose levels using body fluids other than blood, which will be a great relief to diabetics, who now have to prick their fingers and draw blood in order to monitor the level of sugar in their system.

At the Google Science Fair Shree Bose took top honors in the 17-18 year old group for discovering a way to improve treatment for ovarian cancer patients who have developed resistance to commonly used chemotherapy drugs.

Girl Scouts Take Honors Too

Among the young people making incredible discoveries and advances in medicine is a group of Girl Scouts from Ames, Iowa. The group, calling themselves the Flying Monkeys won the 2011 Global Innovation Award sponsored by First Lego League and the X Prize foundation with a prosthetic hand device they invented to help a little girl who was born with no fingers on her right hand. Due to the incredible efforts of Gaby Dempsey, Mackenzie Gewell, and Kate Murry, the 3 year old girls can now write for the first time ever.

The Future In Good Hands

With so many stories these days about the demise of the youth of America it is indeed refreshing to read about these marvelous, and incredibly bright teens already making their mark in the world. Their ambition is yet another reminder that advances in every field of medicine and science can come from the most unlikely sources and that an open mind should always be kept in looking into these sources. It is one thing to be very intelligent. It is quite another to put that intelligence to work in such a worthwhile and fruitful endeavor as the sciences. One can only imagine what these young minds will come up with as they move ahead with their studies. They set a wonderful example for everyone but especially their peers who can look to their achievements and realize that they too can make their mark in the world if they only put their hearts and minds to the task.

The underlying cause of many forms of cancer are as varied as the cancers themselves. From smoking and environmental factors to genetics and diet, you can find any number of factors contributing to someone getting cancer. In the case of children, the root cause of the cancer can be a little harder to grasp because one of the biggest causes, a risky lifestyle, is off the table so doctors need to look much further to find the cancer trigger in children. Cancer in children occurs, in general, in kids aged 0-5 and is believed to start in the mother’s womb.

High Cure Rates in Kids

While the diagnosis of cancer in a child can be devastating to say the least, the cure rate for kids suffering from some form of cancer is about 3 in 4, which is remarkably high. In order to cure a child of cancer they generally go through the full course of treatments so as to make sure that the child doesn’t have any relapses. Medical advances in the areas of drug treatment and bone marrow transplantation have been key in treating childhood cancers. Medical experts note that cancer in children is generally acute and that symptoms are usually immediately seen and that the cancer can move quickly. At least 30% of all children with cancer have leukemia, with lymphoma and brain tumors following.

Check The Parents:

A recent study indicates that the health of the parents is linked to cancer in children, especially the health of the mother prior to and during pregnancy. Heavy drinking and smoking are said to be linked to a higher incidence of cancer in children and even in the case of father’s that smoke it has been found that their offspring have a higher probability of getting leukemia than the children of non-smokers. When these children are diagnosed with cancer the treatment will depend on several factors, particularly the type of cancer and the stage of development of the disease. It has been found that more than 50% of young cancer patients do not respond to drug therapy so bone marrow transplants are often required. However a bone marrow transplant is not an easy operation and does indeed come with many of its own risks. Bone marrow transplant surgery can be the difference between life and death for many child cancer patients but it is a last resort because of the extreme nature and risks involved with cleansing the bones of diseased marrow and transplanting it with marrow that will produce healthy white blood cells. Bone marrow treatment can last 3 – 4 years before it is completely over and does its job.

Follow-up Is Most Important

Doctors note that in dealing with children suffering from cancer, their follow-up visits to the doctor for additional therapy, check-ups, and consultations is key in ridding the child of cancer once and for all. In some instances, especially in bone marrow transplants that take a long time to work, parents will become despondent believing that their child’s case is incurable and therefore they can tend to lose hope and not follow-up with treatments. This is especially true in poor rural areas of the country and in less developed and developing countries. The cure rates for cancer in children are high but only with rigorous attention to the details involved in their long term treatments.

In finding that the health of the parents, especially the mother, is a key to keeping your child cancer-free doctors are simply reinforcing what they have known for quite some time. While there are many environmental triggers for cancer, these generally are not at the heart of childhood cancers. These environmental factors can indeed be a cause of poor health in a child’s parents so a greater emphasis on living a healthier life, especially if you are planning to have a family is a point of emphasis in the health care industry. Expectant mothers should not smoke and should keep drinking to a limit if at all. With cancer rates highest in those children whose mothers were smokers and drinkers it should be obvious to everyone that mothers who care about the health of their child should not drink or smoke during pregnancy.

However, should a childhood cancer be diagnosed, the doctor will inform both parents and everyone else involved with the care of the child about the type of cancer and the treatment necessary to cure it. The emphasis here is to educate everyone because while the child might be too young to understand the gravity of the disease, it is important that the family and caregivers understand it fully in order for them to lend moral and care support during treatment.

With most of the news these days seeming to indicate that more and more children are being diagnosed with severe learning and cognitive disabilities it’s nice to hear that all the news isn’t quite that bad. In fact, a recent report by Racine Unified School District indicates that advancements in pediatrics and prenatal medicine are starting to show results in school age children and these results are also being noticed by their teachers and administrators. The report by Racine Unified said that fewer students are enrolling in schools with severe cognitive disabilities. 

A Trend In Better Health?

The report by Racine Unified notes that the number of students who are classified as non-verbal as well as those who display significant delays in various measures of intelligence, function, and skills are actually falling. The study attributes the trend to earlier diagnosis and better planned pregnancies. In fact, the declining number of these kids showing up in schools has been noticeable to local and national experts in the field of pediatrics and child development. Early diagnosis is one of the biggest differences cited by these medical experts. A few decades ago there was not nearly as much information and knowledge about pervasive developmental disorders. Now everyone involved in child care giving is more knowledgeable about symptoms and this awareness about disorders and treatment options has led to better diagnosis at an earlier stage of life when treatment options can be most effective. Once a diagnosis has been rendered, intervention options have a much better chance of helping a child.

These early intervention programs often involve counseling of parents, medication, psychotherapy, and behavior therapy when necessary. All of these approaches to helping children with cognitive disorders are part of healthcare networks these days so it is more likely now than ever before that children will be put into early intervention programs. Medical experts are quick to point out that these programs won’t make the disorders go away in and of themselves but by diagnosing and putting kids into these programs earlier, their chances for turning the corner and leading a more normal life are infinitely better.

The Autism Example

One of the best examples of how early diagnosis and intervention can help children with learning and cognitive disorders is that of autism. Experts note that early intervention with those kids suffering from autism could involve their taking part in electronic or interpersonal games that are designed to get them to interact with other children. While the child diagnosed with autism thinks he or she is playing, they are actually learning and building social skills. The areas of the brain that are responsible for forming the neuro-networks that facilitate children having successful interactions actually improve with the use of these games and without this kind of early intervention, these same children will turn inward, not outward, which is often the case with autistic children.  They also note that such early intervention raise the possibility that these children will be able to interact with their peers and perhaps lead independent lives as adults.

More Healthy Births

Another finding of interest from Racine Unified is that they believe that there are fewer severely disabled children showing up in the classroom because there are fewer disabled children being born. The benefits of much better prenatal care are part of the trend in much more healthy babies being born in the first place. Genetic counseling is also another area where parents can get a better handle on their chances of having a child born with severe mental handicaps and take appropriate steps in family planning after knowing this information.

So….Is This A Trend?

Well, its hard to say until much more detailed studies on larger population groups are examined to see if indeed there is a decline in the number of disabled children coming into the school system. But so far the news is better and a welcome relief from the other side of this concerning issue whereby it is more widely believed that the number of kids with learning disabilities is on the rise. It takes some time before medical advances show up in the statistics, especially advances having more to do with early diagnosis and intervention treatments rather than cures. This could be the case with childhood learning and cognitive disorders as only now after so many years of getting a handle on the diagnosis and treatment at an early stage in life are we starting to see the positive benefits of this approach to such debilitating and life altering disorders in so many children and young adults.

One of the toughest things about pediatric medicine is that children can’t always tell you what is wrong with them, nor do they realize something is wrong in the first place. This is the case with a little known visual problem in children called Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI). Children suffering from CVI aren’t always aware that they have a problem and more often than not their parents aren’t quite sure what is wrong with their child because CVI can result in behavioral issues for children when the act out because of their impaired vision. Their behavior is not always connected to the fact that their vision is distorting their view of the world and therefore their ability to perform even the simplest of tasks such as walking up stairs. CVI is a condition where there is a communication breakdown between a child’s vision and the messages within the brain. The result is that a child is unable to make sense of what they see. However, pioneering work by a Glasgow nurse is making early diagnosis of CVI much easier for parents and doctors. 

CVI Getting More Attention

The problem with cerebral visual impairment is not necessarily with the long term vision of the child but with their early development due to their distorted view of the world around them. In many CVI cases there is little deterioration of the child’s actual vision itself and as they get older their visual problems can improve. However, while they are still young and dealing with CVI, their lives can be very difficult and frustrating. Now the work of Catriona Macintyre-Beon, a nurse specialist at the Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Visual Impairment Center, is making the diagnosis a little easier while at the same time producing simple and easy guidelines for parents and schools in the hope that they can improve the quality of life for children suffering from CVI.

CVI Background

Children with CVI will display many telltale signs of this disease but it isn’t always clear that they have visual problems. They may have trouble getting up and down stairs, picking out toys, watching television or movies, or even being aware of what is going on around them because the images they are seeing are moving much more quickly than they can handle or discern. The details of their visual field become completely distorted and can lead to many different behavioral issues because of the frustration of not being able to get a handle on what is going on around them.

Ms. Macintyre-Beon’s work includes creating an assessment tool that will pick up CVI earlier in children by using a precise interviewing methodology to track behaviors displayed by a child and possible links to their vision. According to Ms. Macintyre-Beon the damage to a child’s vision center of the brain can occur at various times in a child’s life, but this damage is not always well-understood. She also notes that this damage can occur as early as when the fetus is in the womb due to an infection in the lining of the womb. Once properly diagnosed the child’s family, teachers, and other caregivers are better able to assist the child and to provide a better quality of life for them.

Help for CVI Children

Coping strategies for children with CVI are the best way to help them  through this difficult time in their lives. For instance, when CVI issues lead to behavioral problems for a child in school something as simple as the buddy system for the child can eliminate the behavior issues and the resultant problems in school. Children with CVI can feel isolated while in school and can also be the victims of bullying because of their not fitting in with the other children. A buddy helps both the CVI child as well as the buddy, as they learn valuable life-lessons about helping their fellow students.

Another way to help CVI children in school is with the introduction of tilted desks and the enlargement and optimal spacing of text and by trying as best as possible to reduce visual clutter in those parts of the classroom where most of the teaching takes place. At home, Ms. Macintyre-Beon recommends using neutral colors for walls, carpeting and furniture and by keeping wall ornaments and pictures to a minimum in the rooms used by the child most. This is another way to keep their field of vision a little more free of “visual noise” that is at the heart of the problems displayed by CVI children.

Moving Forward

Ms. Macintryre-Beon is in the process of applying for a research project grant to continue her studies and to create even more comprehensive interviews with parents of children that have been diagnosed with CVI or who might be displaying behaviors most commonly found in CVI children. She firmly believes that an early diagnosis and rehabilitation strategies combined with a change in attitude of parents and teachers of CVI children makes a great difference in the child’s self-esteem and this will lead to affected children no longer being criticized but understood and helped.

The thought of anyone losing a limb is heart-wrenching. The thought of a child or a teen losing an arm or leg is even more so if for no other reason other than their lives will be so inextricably altered so early in life. Losing a limb is no less traumatic for everyone else too, especially those brave men and women in our military, who put life and limb on the line everyday in the defense of our country. That said, those who are at risk of losing a limb to disease rather than traumatic injury may find some hope in new limb-sparing surgical techniques that are being developed, especially when treating malignant bone tumors. Unlike many other surgical procedures used to treat these tumors in children, limb-sparing surgery, for the first time, gives your child a great chance of keeping his or her limb while treating the tumor.

Limb- Sparing Surgery: Giving Kids Hope

Malignant tumors can spread through the body quickly, quietly, and with deadly consequences. More often than not, doctors will treat a malignant tumor by removing it when possible, and in cases where those tumors are located in the leg, a surgeon is likely to remove the patient’s leg while removing the tumor to ensure that it doesn’t spread into other parts of the body, especially vital organs. The surgery, even when successful in ridding the patient of cancer, can leave a young child in traumatized state for quite sometime as he or she contemplates how to go about living life with one leg. New surgical techniques being developed by cancer surgeons have led to advances in those operations where they are able to remove only the tumor and surrounding bone and cartilage while leaving the rest of the leg intact.

The parts of the leg bone that were removed during surgery are eventually replaced using bone transplants, or allograft bones grafts, or metal implants similar to those used in knee joint replacements. Even in young children, who still have a great deal of body and bone growth ahead of them are able to have limb-sparing surgery with the help of a recently developed device called a growing prosthesis that expands while inside the child’s limb.

Related Medical Advances a Great Help

In order to see if a child is a candidate for limb-sparing surgery a team of doctors will evaluate the case on the basis of several factors, many of which are determined with the assistance of advanced medical technologies that help to ensure that the final decision is the right one. First on the list are the images that a doctor will take of the tumor. Over the course of time these images will help the surgeon decide if the tumor is growing, where exactly it is located as well as providing images to help with a surgical plan of attach so to speak. The Doctor’s at Children’s Hospital were pioneers in developing the PET scan and the MRI, both of which are vital in providing detailed images of malignant tumors. A PET scan, or Positron Emission Tomography, is a test that produces three-dimensional images that can help doctors discern cancerous tumors from healthy tissue as well as helping them to see how well treatments are working at reducing the size of the tumor.

The use of these images after chemotherapy helps the surgeon to see if the tumor is shrinking to a size where it will be operable, and most importantly, will be able to be removed without removing the child’s leg. These images are also vital in post-surgical procedures in evaluating how bone grafts are healing as the child grows.

Candidates for Limb-Sparing Surgery

Those children with osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma are the prime candidates for limb-sparing surgery but there are still many factors that will determine if this surgical technique is the right one for them. Their doctor will want to see the size of the tumor, the location, and the degree to which it has spread before making an evaluation about being able to use limb-sparing surgery in treating your child’s tumor. If a tumor is too close to a major artery or nerve limb-sparing surgery may not be an option for them. Doctors will also want to see the tumor respond to chemotherapy to shrink the mass also before making any decision. One other factor is the amount of soft tissue in the leg. Doctors will want to make sure that your child has enough soft tissue in the surrounding area to be confident that the wounds will heal properly after the surgery.

Post-Op

Any surgery is major if you are the one having the surgery and while limb-sparing surgery is a Godsend in ridding your child of a cancerous tumor while also saving his or her limb, it is still quite a traumatic operation and the recovery can be long and difficult. One of the most challenging parts of this surgical technique is matching the implant that is placed in the leg to your growing child. In some cases a child will need several procedures that lengthen the implants to keep up with the normal growth of the child. However, compared to the alternatives, most families will take it everyday and twice on Sunday.