No Donation Too Small
- Students at a school in South Dakota raised over $10,000 in one week when students brought in pennies to help a family whose mom has brain cancer.
- Brain cancer treatment options include surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.
- Focusing on the good while battling cancer makes a positive difference, experts say.
Students at the school raised $10,583 over the course of a single week by collecting pennies for one of the school’s families, the Loe family. Blair and Rylee Loe are students at Tea Area Legacy Elementary and their mom, Jess Loe, is battling brain cancer. “All the grades would come up and dump their pennies in their grades and put silver coins in other grade’s jar," student council member Conlee Cerny tells Keloland News.
Read MoreTreatment Options for Brain Cancer
Brain cancer treatment options include surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, and the course of the treatment path depends upon the stage of the cancer when it’s diagnosed. There have been some exciting new developments in treatment options for brain cancer.In an earlier interview, Dr. Suriya Jeyapalana, a neurologist at Tufts Medical Center, explains the new hope that exists for people battling brain cancer. "I think there's a lot of nihilism when it comes to primary brain tumors such as glioblastoma,” he says. “People are told, unfortunately, in the local community at times, you know, just go home and maximize time with your family. And that's not the case anymore."
Related: What are Tumor Treating Fields for Cancer Treatment?
Dr. Jeyapalan explains, "We're getting people who are surviving quite some time with a good quality of life. There's been the very exciting development of tumor treating fields, which are electrical fields that have been applied to the brain. They're basically these adhesive pads, front and back, right and left. They're connected to a device that now weighs about 2 and 1/2 pounds. And it generates this alternating electric current that has been shown in a major randomized controlled trial again, an international trial with about 700 patients to add on another 50% of survival at two years."
Focusing on the Good Through Brain Cancer
Heartwarming stories like this one from Tea Area Legacy Elementary remind us of the importance of finding the good and the positive in any situation, no matter how difficult. For many people, the COVID-19 pandemic has crystalized priorities and made people even more thankful for their health, family and jobs. Focusing on the good while battling cancer makes a positive difference, experts say.
Cedars-Sinai’s Dr. Zuri Murrell says that having a positive attitude through cancer matters. “My patients who thrive, even with stage 4 cancer, from the time that they, about a month after they’re diagnosed, I kind of am pretty good at seeing who is going to be OK,” he says.
“Now doesn’t that mean I’m good at saying that the cancer won’t grow. But I’m pretty good at telling what kind of patient are going to still have this attitude and probably going to live the longest, even with bad, bad disease,” continues Dr. Murrell. “And those are patients who, they have gratitude in life.”
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