September - Childhood cancer awareness month

[tashaw6]

Isn't it just sad how more and more kids are getting cancer in today's world!! I stumbled upon this blog and wow what a powerful writer this woman is! Read along and do your bit for childhood cancer not just for this month but for the future too!

http://rockstarronan.com/

[bensgirl1222]

Heartwrenching . I wonder if I can call up my ped tomorrow and ask them for the urine test?? I wonder why it's not automatically screened as an infant?! Horrible.

[tashaw6]

I wonder the same thing! A simple urine test can save a life!!

[bensgirl1222]

Yeah no kidding! Especially the life of your child. I'd pay anything! I'm surprised they don't test that at birth. I'm going to look into it more.

[boilermaker]

What a sad story that family has. I cannot imagine being in their shoes. But I admit, I'm slightly offended by her jab at Breast Cancer awareness. Perhaps she's not familiar with the story behind the Susan G Koman foundation and the DECADES of work her sister has ptu into making Breast Cancer an international topic. It's not like businesses just decided one day to donate money and pass out pink ribbons. It takes an activist.

I'm confused about your posts regarding a urine test. Cancer patients aren't typically born with cancer, so a urine test at birth would do no good. It is only effective after the cancer starts to develop. If your child has a high fever, most peds do a urine test (I know mine does). It would be ridiculous to continually run random urine screening on the general population just in case they catch the cancer earlier.

[bensgirl1222]

Well, the reason I say "at birth" is bc, from what I read, kids who have Neuroblastoma are born with it. Though maybe I read that wrong. But there was an article that I read stating how Japan used to test newborns with this urine test at birth.

[IrishEyes]

Childhood cancers are so difficult to read about. There have been significant improvements in treatments, though, and cure rates have gone up a lot in the last 30 years.

In terms of neuroblastoma, it appears that the VMA urine test is not specific or sensitive. So there is a high chance for false positives and false negatives (VMA is only elevated in 9 out of 10 children with neuroblastoma). Given that, it would be a poor choice for a screening test for every child. It looks like it is used when the child has symptoms and neuroblastoma is a possibility.

[anemone]

Well, the reason I say "at birth" is bc, from what I read, kids who have Neuroblastoma are born with it. Though maybe I read that wrong. But there was an article that I read stating how Japan used to test newborns with this urine test at birth.

Could that be because Japan has a higher rate of cancers from birth due to radiation exposure? I would think that the risk in the general population would be incredibly low, which is why they wouldn't test automatically at birth.

Very sad story though.

[tashaw6]

Want to make a difference without much effort and just a click:

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petition...earch/8ZnnxNgw