Enhancing quality of life
As part of an annual program for siblings of Jimmy Fund Clinic patients, Ian MacLean (center) gives Patricia Dwyer, LICSW (right), a "checkup" while clinic assistant Eorna Maguire looks on.
Many of the therapies pioneered during the 1950s and early 1960s are still being used today, with refinements made through clinical trials. However, much of the care given to young DFCI patients has changed in recent years. This is thanks to specialized treatment programs such as the Stop & Shop Family Pediatric Brain Tumor Clinic, expanded support services, and more focus on quality-of-life issues.
Anesthetic cream to numb the skin, intravenous "ports" that allow medications to be given and blood to be drawn more easily, and anti-vomiting drugs have helped make procedures more tolerable. Additional social workers and other support staff, along with two pediatric resource rooms filled with books, videos, and other sources of cancer information, have also enhanced care.
Among efforts to improve the cancer experience are the Back to School Program, which aims to educate patients' schoolmates and teachers about the illness, and the David B. Perini, Jr. Quality of Life Clinic, which helps survivors of childhood cancers deal with the long-term effects of radiation, chemotherapy, and other regimens.
"Treatment doesn't end when a child's cancer is gone," notes Lisa Diller, MD, medical director of the Perini Clinic, which currently follows about 650 patients of all ages. "The child cured of a brain tumor first becomes an adolescent concerned about school performance because of therapies that might affect memory skills, then becomes an adult wondering if infertility will result from the cancer treatment received years earlier. It is a lifelong process."
- Next: Leader in research
- Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
