Search Results

Drew

One thought that never crossed my mind as a parent was the fear of a cancer diagnosis for my five year old son.

A few months shy of his 6th Birthday, Drew had very typical cold symptoms, but they were persistent and he was extremely fatigued.  After a two visits to his primary care physician, come over the counter medicines and finally a trip to Urgent care, we had a lot of questions but no answers.  My husband took him to his primary care Dr on Monday and we insisted on a blood test. 

Amanda

I am now a two-time acute myeloid leukemia (AML) survivor. When I was diagnosed with AML, it was an absolute complete shock. At the time of my diagnosis, I was a stay-at-home mom to my then three-year-old son. In a matter of a few hours and three words, “You have cancer,” my life completely turned upside down.

Lila

It’s January 11th, 2017, well past midnight, probably around 3 am. I am on the side of a mountain in Africa, 1000 miles away from home, in pitch black out, -20º with the winds, and I can barely feel my fingers. All I can see is the headlamp spot of light shining on the trail.

I think to myself, “Well, Lila, maybe this was not your best idea!” I look up and call my teammate in front of me, my best friend Dawn, and say, “Dawn, I am sorry I talked you into this.” She just looks at me, gives a knowing smile, then turns back to the path in front of us!

Julia

Julia is an eleven-year-old volleyball player, and when she started to experience digestive issues that we couldn't equate to anything, we were afraid that her physical symptoms would keep her off the court for a prolonged period of time.

Teresa

It took two months for the doctors to take my illness seriously. I was suffering from hip and leg pain, but the doctors thought it was caused by the sports I was playing in high school. They would send me home with pain medication.

Clifford

The year 2012 started as one of the best years I could remember. After an arduous effort, I successfully passed step 1 of the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) which allowed me passage into my third-year medical school clinical rotations. After a wonderful third-year experience, I transitioned to my fourth year and was cruising toward the finish line of my dream to become a physician. Not only that, but after completely overhauling my nutrition and exercise habits, I had lost 100 pounds and was enjoying a newfound freedom that is beyond words.

Chloe

At the age of 13, I became the youngest stem cell donor at Johns Hopkins Hospital. At 15, I am a Student Visionary of the Year in the 2024 Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) campaign. LLS has become an integral part of my life over the past two years. In the spring of 2022, the peaceful life of our family was shattered by my mom’s diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Learning that a stem cell transplant was the only cure, I volunteered to donate my bone marrow to her.

Diagnosis

An accurate diagnosis of the type of leukemia is important. The exact diagnosis helps the doctor to estimate how the disease will progress and determine the appropriate treatment

Diagnosing acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and your AML subtype usually involves a series of tests. Some of these tests may be repeated during and after therapy to measure the effects of treatment.

Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy, also known as “radiotherapy,” uses high energy x-rays or other types of radiation to kill cancer cells. While most blood cancers cannot be cured with radiation therapy alone, it may be combined other treatments such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy and stem cell transplantation. Radiation therapy may also be used to relieve symptoms of blood cancer and improve quality of life. For example, radiation therapy may be used to shrink an enlarged spleen, liver or lymph nodes. It may also be used to manage bone pain caused by cancer cells growing in the bone marrow. 

Healthy Eating

People living with cancer may have different nutrition goals and challenges, depending on their:

Caring for Your Child During Treatment

The following changes to your home may make life easier and safer for you and your child:

Stem Cell Transplantation

The goal of stem cell transplantation is to cure the patient’s cancer by destroying the cancer cells in the bone marrow with high doses of chemotherapy and then replacing them with new, healthy blood-forming stem cells. The healthy blood stem cells will grow and multiply forming new bone marrow and blood cells. There are two main types of stem cell transplantation. They are

CML Phases and Prognostic Factors

CML has three phases. The phase of your chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) plays a large part in determining the type of treatment you'll receive. Doctors use diagnostic tests to determine the phase of CML. Determining the CML phase is based primarily on the number of immature white blood cells (blasts) in the patient’s blood and bone marrow. 

Chronic Phase. Most patients are diagnosed with CML in the with chronic phase of the disease.

​People with chronic phase CML:

CML in Children and Young Adults

Most cases of CML occur in adults. From 2012 to 2016, approximately 2 percent of all cases of CML occurred in children, adolescents and young adults less than age 20.

Myeloma Staging

Doctors use imaging and laboratory test results and bone marrow examination findings to determine the extent of disease. This determination is called “staging.” Staging helps your doctor predict the myeloma's progression and develop a treatment plan.

Stem Cell Transplantation with High-Dose Chemotherapy

High-dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation are important parts of treatment plans for eligible, recently diagnosed myeloma patients. One of the following types of transplants may be used:

Are Clinical Trials Safe?

U.S. clinical trials are designed to give patients the safest, potentially most effective clinical therapies. Clinical trials are conducted once researchers have shown in the laboratory and in animal research that a particular study treatment has a good chance of offering better outcomes for people with a specific disease.

Patients enrolled in cancer clinical trials are never treated as “guinea pigs.” In fact, patients are given either

Peripheral Neuropathy

Cancer treatment, or sometimes the disease itself, can cause peripheral neuropathy (PN) — damage to nerves of the peripheral nervous system, which transmits information from the brain and spinal cord to every other part of the body. Peripheral neuropathy can be caused by:

Choosing a Treatment Center

Selecting a cancer treatment center may depend on several factors including your specific diagnosis, location and insurance coverage. You will want to choose an accredited treatment center with the medical expertise to provide the type(s) of treatment you will need.

Home Care

You don't necessarily need to depend on inpatient medical facilities to meet all your healthcare needs. If your condition allows, you can get the quality care you need at home and avoid the inconveniences of hospitals, nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities.

Amanda

"He was selfless, unbelievably selfless," said Amanda about her father, Andrew. "He did everything for everybody. He worried enough for our family plus more. And never showed it. He worked extremely hard to provide us with everything we could possibly need." 

Gerardo (Jerry)

I came into this world with a 65,000-mile warranty. During all my life, maybe I had a cold once in a while, some minor stuff, a bit of bursitis, but nothing that you would consider life-threatening at all. One day during a routine exam, I had blood work done. My PCP told me she didn't like my white blood cell count, and it was best to have a specialist look at it. She referred me to an oncologist. I didn’t think of it much, and since I was feeling fine, I thought it must be nothing of consequence.

Brianna

"He was the king of positivity" is what Dr. McCarthy at Roswell Park said to me the day after my Dad passed away from complications of GVHD or graft-versus-host disease. My Dad was a leader, someone who was always willing to help others, and always had a smile on his face. Not only was I his co-caregiver throughout his cancer journey, but he was also my caregiver during mine.

Sofia

Sofia’s story starts in November 2022. Actually, it starts on March 17, 2019, when she was born. She has been my fierce, independent, strong-willed little girl from the get-go. Once she started walking, she was an unstoppable force. Contrary to her cautious, older brother, Sofia seemed fearless. She loved to climb to the top of the playground structure meant for kids twice her age. She loved gymnastics and took after Mommy with her love of the bars, anything she could hang or climb on. 

Allie

When I was in fourth grade in 2015, my older brother Nate (a freshman in high school at the time) was rushed by ambulance to the U of M Masonic Children’s Hospital. His spleen was holding 10 times the normal amount of red blood cells. This led to the discovery of his cancer. He was later diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). He missed out on the first month of high school and hockey season, but he was able to take medicines at home so that he could eventually attend the rest of the school year.