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Erin Thibault
Professor Debra Dagher
UWRT-1102-090
26 September 2014
Pediatric Cancer
Cancer in itself is a relentless, aggressive disease. It is real, it is devastating, and it is
emotional. Pediatric cancer is perhaps the most emotional of them all. When I see the
commercials of children with cancer at St. Judes hospital telling stories about their journey I tear
up, and want to donate every penny I have to help them. This is probably the same reaction that
most people have. So why is there next to no funding for pediatric cancer? Why are there no
treatments designed specifically for children? Why do such a large number of children struggle
with complications even after they go into remission? These are a few of the questions I hope to
answer throughout my inquiry project.
Cancer is the most common cause of nonviolent death for children in the United States
(Boklan 1905). That fact absolutely astonishes me. This disease is killing our children, our
future, yet no major strides to effectively treat it are being taken.
Neuroblastoma is an especially aggressive, unforgiving form of pediatric cancer. It is a
cancer that effects the nervous system, and has usually spread throughout the body into the
kidneys, liver, bones, and lymph nodes before being diagnosed. John Maris states in his article
that survival rates among children with neuroblastoma have paled in comparison to survival rates

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of all other types of cancer (2202). This news is devastating, it is almost like saying children
diagnosed with neuroblasoma have a death sentence.
Treatments for pediatric patients are the same ones used for treating adult cancer patients.
This may not seem like a big deal, the kids are still getting the medicine right? Yes, except that
cancer in adults and children often act and respond differently. For instance, pediatric cancers
are frequently more aggressive and rapidly progressive (1905-06). Not only do children get the
hand-me-downs from the adults, the majority of them have to life with life-long complications
caused by cancer treatments. Laverdire et al. state that ninety-five percent of neuroblastoma
survivors will have at least one moderate side effect after remission (326). I propose that
treatments tailored specifically for children with greatly reduce the amount of complications
that occur.
As of today, there is no cure for cancer of any kind. There really are not even any set in
stone causes of it. It is just a mystery, one that we may never, no matter how hard we hope or
pray, know the answers to. Throughout this extended inquiry project, I hope to gather
information about how the current pediatric cancer treatment options effect the quality of life in
children who beat neuroblstoma. I will use previous studies, articles, and journals to obtain this
information. These children are our future, they deserve to be able to live life to the fullest. In
conclusion, I ask you all to go gold, because kids get cancer too!

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Reflection
I have decided to change my proposal topic from how awareness effects the survival rate
of children with cancer, to a more specific topic of how current neuroblastoma treatments cause
long term complications for children in remission. I made this choice for many reasons. During
the peer review it was pointed out to me that my ideas were a little all over the place and there
was no true topic for my inquiry project stated. After re-reading my paper several times and
analyzing it, I realized that I did need to decide exactly where this project was going. I started my
Prezi, and let all the questions I had from the first article I found take me in several different
directions. It became more apparent to me that I did want to do my extended inquiry project on
neuroblastoma, but there was not a lot of credible, non-bias, information on how awareness
effects the survival rate. I was researching the different treatment options available when I came
across an article that described the long term effects of neurblastoma treatment. This
immediately caught my attention, and after reading several articles I decided that it would be an
interesting topic, that had plenty of usable information, to do my extended inquiry project on.

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Works Cited
Boklan, J. "Little Patients, Losing Patience: Pediatric Cancer Drug Development." Molecular
Cancer Therapeutics 5.8 (2006): 1905-908. Print. 12 Sept. 2014.
Laverdire, Caroline, Nai-Kong V. Cheung, Brian H. Kushner, Kim Kramer, Shakeel Modak,
Michael P. Laquaglia, Suzanne Wolden, Kirsten K. Ness, James G. Gurney, and Charles A.
Sklar. "Long-term Complications in Survivors of Advanced Stage Neuroblastoma."
Pediatric Blood & Cancer 45.3 (2005): 324-32. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Sept.
2014.
Maris, John M. "Recent Advances in Neuroblastoma." New England Journal of Medicine 362.23
(2010): 2202-211. Web. 12 Sept. 2014.