“Pandemic or no pandemic, cancer patients young and old still have to get their chemotherapy, blood checked and see their doctors,” says Shaunyl Benson, wife of Criss Angel, as their son, Johnny Crisstopher, returns for blood testing during treatment for relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
View this post on InstagramRead More Diagnosed at age 2, Johnny Crisstopher’s remission ended when his cancer returned in December 2019. Now 6, he has spent much of 2020 undergoing treatment.Dr. Puvri Parikh, an Immunologist at New York University (NYU) Langone Health, told SurvivorNet that children undergoing cancer treatment are at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19, despite the low number of pediatric deaths from the virus.
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As parents of children with cancer know, hospitals and clinics now allow only one parent to accompany a child to appointments to minimize the risk of coronavirus infection.
Dr. Puvri Parikh an Immunologist at NYU’s Langone Health says that many hospitals are limiting visitation due to threats of COVID-19
COVID-19 and Pediatric Cancer
It's important to speak to the child's oncologist to measure what level of visitation is safest, says Dr. Parikh. As hospitals implement new registration procedures and limit visitation, these restrictions lead to difficult decisions for parents.
Dr. Parikh recommends using virtual platforms like FaceTime and Zoom to allow the non-accompanying parent to provide emotional support and be present for physician updates. "Because of technology we're lucky," Dr. Parikh says. "Social distancing is a little bit easier than it maybe would have been 20 or 30 years ago."
The Research Lag in Pediatric Cancer
Benson has been vocal about her frustration with the slow pace of pediatric cancer advancements. "Why is chemotherapy the only option after 40 years?" she asked in an impassioned Instagram post.
"Why is this still happening? … Why aren't there enough bone marrow donors? … Why are children dying from cancers that have high cure rates? Why do these kids need to wait for an approval number for treatment from an office clerk that doesn't care? Why is this ok?" Finally, she wrote, "how the heck do we fix this!?
According to the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation, only 4% of the billions of dollars spent annually in the U.S. on cancer research and treatments are directed towards childhood cancer. This funding lag has a ripple effect: Since 1980, fewer than 10 drugs have been developed for use in children with cancer while hundreds been created exclusively for adults.
The couple has long supported pediatric cancer causes through the Johnny Crisstopher Children's Charitable Foundation (a 501 c3 ) which Angel established "to raise awareness of pediatric cancer and provide funds for research, treatment, and ultimately a cure."
About Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
There are two main types of lymphoblastic leukemia: chronic and acute. While patients can live with chronic leukemia for a long time, acute leukemia can progress quickly, and if not treated, can be fatal within a few months.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a cancer that occurs when the bone marrow makes too much of a type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, according to the National Cancer Institute. However, it is the most common type of childhood cancer, and three out every four cases of childhood leukemia are diagnosed as acute.
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Signs of childhood ALL include fever and bruising, and the disease can be detected using tests that examine the blood and bone marrow. Chemotherapy, radiation, chemotherapy with a stem cell transplant, and targeted therapy are all considered standard treatment, according to the American Cancer Society.
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