CAC2 Childhood Cancer Community News Digest (December 5-11)

Assorted News from the Last Week:

For many patients, one of the most antagonizing parts of a hospital visit is paying for parking. Those parking fees aren’t just an annoyance for the sick and injured, according to a new paper in the Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences. The charges are actually eating into their financial well-being, particularly for people who have cancer and have to make frequent visits to the hospital for treatments like radiation and chemotherapy.

Children diagnosed with diffuse midline gliomas often die within a year after their initial diagnosis since there are no effective treatments yet for this rare cancer. But researchers now have a better understanding of what these tumors look like and can work towards developing new treatment approaches.

The impact of drugs on the gut microbiome in pediatric cancer patients should be taken into consideration regarding trial design and drug prescribing, with potential implications related to gut microbiome modulation. In the near future, testing of the microbiome may provide a tool to help guide initial dose selection and dose adjustments of selected drugs.

Interested in joining NCI’s #CancerGrandChallenges Advocacy Panel? In this role you would help to shape challenges, and work closely with teams.  The voice, experience, and insight of people affected by cancer is central to the work. Find out about the role:  Visit Grand Challenge for details.

The Communication Team at the Childhood Cancer Data Initiative is hoping to identify personal stories from the patient/caregiver/survivor perspective to feature in their monthly newsletter debuting next month.  Each month the CCDI progress update will include three stories of people in the childhood cancer community that either relate directly to childhood cancer data sharing or allow them to highlight a need that CCDI would help meet.  Please email Vickie at of you have a story or would like more information.