Omar's Dream Play

Keeping kids connected thanks to one patient’s dream

When young patients move into Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford for treatment for cancer, transplant surgeries, or other acute conditions, their academic and social lives become secondary to their health needs. To bridge that gap, the Omar’s Dream Foundation is working with Packard Children’s to keep kids connected by donating laptops and other electronic devices that enable them to stay in contact with their classrooms and curriculum while in the hospital for extended periods of time.

Family at the Bass Center Play

Stanford’s Bass Center Shines a Light on Pediatric Cancer in Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

The Stanford Medicine Children’s Health Bass Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases has organized activities to observe Childhood Cancer Awareness month. The Bass Center is a leading pediatric cancer center dedicated to helping children of all ages who have cancer and blood diseases to manage or overcome their conditions.

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Extra chemo drugs don’t improve treatment of rare bone cancer

A large clinical trial, published today in The Lancet Oncology, should spare young people with a rare bone cancer from the side effects of too much chemotherapy. Current treatments for osteosarcoma, a malignant bone tumor that usually affects teenagers, are less effective than doctors would like, so in recent years they’ve sometimes added extra chemotherapy drugs to the standard regimen.

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Trading cancer treatments for spa treatments – Packard Children’s teens get pampered at Girls’ Day Out

Laughter sounded through the hallways of the Tova Day Spa at the Fairmont San Jose hotel, and on the other side a group of patients from Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford were being pampered while discussing Netflix shows, playing games and brainstorming what to wear to prom this year. These may be normal topics of conversation for teens, but for girls undergoing cancer treatment, this day of fun, relaxation and spa treatments was a very welcome respite from their typical routines.

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The mysterious story of a boy who survived a rare and deadly cancer

What would you do if your toddler had a very rare blood cancer and his treatments were failing? At what point would you decide that it was time to stop those treatments and make him as comfortable and happy as possible for whatever time he had left? That was the terrible decision faced by the parents of a young child with a form of leukemia so unusual and deadly that his doctors at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford didn’t know if anyone had ever survived it.

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Cure is not enough for young cancer survivors

People that survive cancer at a young age are expected to live many decades after diagnosis and treatment, so they are the most vulnerable population to long-term damaging effects from cancer therapy. Stanford’s Karen Effinger, MD, MS, and Michael Link, MD, explore this issue in an editorial published today in JAMA Oncology.

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A family’s story changes the science of a rare tumor

When Danah Jewett’s 5-year-old son, Dylan, was dying from a brain tumor in 2008, she wanted to know if there was anything her family could do to help other children who might someday face the same terrible diagnosis. Yes, said Dylan’s doctor, Michelle Monje, MD, PhD: Would you be willing to donate his tumor for cancer research after his death?

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Rooting for Luke

Ongoing chemotherapy means that 8-year-old Luke O’Moore of Los Gatos cannot take part in his beloved BMX races. So members of the northern California BMX community came together to organize an exciting pro-am racing series and fundraiser in his honor.