Biological background of pediatric medulloblastoma and ependymoma: A review from a translational research perspective

Survival rates of pediatric brain tumor patients have significantly improved over the years due to developments in diagnostic techniques, neurosurgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and supportive care. However, brain tumors are still an important cause of cancer-related deaths in children. Prognosis is still highly dependent on clinical characteristics, such as the age of the patient, tumor type, stage, and localization, but increased knowledge about the genetic and biological features of these tumors is being obtained and might be useful to further improve outcome for these patients. It has become clear that the deregulation of signaling pathways essential in brain development, for example, sonic hedgehog (SHH), Wnt, and Notch pathways, plays an important role in pathogenesis and biological behavior, especially for medulloblastomas. More recently, data have become available about the cells of origin of brain tumors and the possible existence of brain tumor stem cells. Newly developed array-based techniques for studying gene expression, protein expression, copy number aberrations, and epigenetic events have led to the identification of other potentially important biological abnormalities in pediatric medulloblastomas and ependymomas. Copyright 2008 by the Society for Neuro-Oncology

Pain at home during childhood cancer treatment: Severity, prevalence, analgesic use, and interference with daily life

Background Pain is a common symptom in childhood cancer. Since children spend more time at home, families are increasingly responsible for pain management. This study aimed at assessing pain at home. Procedure In this longitudinal observational study (April 2016-January 2017), pain severity and prevalence, analgesic use, and pain interference with daily life (Brief Pain Inventory Short Form) were assessed for 4 consecutive days around the time of multiple chemotherapy appointments. Descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) were used to report pain severity (with clinically significant pain defined as: score >= 4 on "worst pain" or "average pain in the last 24 h"), pain prevalence, and analgesic use. Mixed models were estimated to assess whether patient characteristics were associated with pain severity, and whether pain severity was associated with interference with daily life. Results Seventy-three children (50.7% male) participated (1-18 years). A majority (N = 57, 78%) experienced clinically significant pain at least once, and 30% reported clinically significant pain at least half the time. In 33.6% of scores >= 4, no medication was used. We found an association between pain severity and interference with daily life: the higher the pain, the bigger the interference (estimated regression coefficient = 1.01 [95% CI 0.98-1.13]). Conclusions The majority of children experienced clinically significant pain at home, and families frequently indicated no medication use. A stronger focus on education and coaching of families seems essential, as well as routine screening for pain in the home setting.Development and application of statistical models for medical scientific researc

Risk-adapted approach for fever and neutropenia in paediatric cancer patients e A national multicentre study

Transplantation and immunomodulatio