{"id":930469,"date":"2026-10-16T17:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T17:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/930469\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T17:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T17:04:11","slug":"even-highly-curable-childhood-leukemias-take-a-substantial-toll-on-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/930469\/","title":{"rendered":"Even Highly Curable Childhood Leukemias Take a Substantial Toll on Families"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n \t\t By The ASCO Post Staff<\/a>

Posted: 10\/16\/2026 10:04:00 AM
\n\t\t
Last Updated: 10\/16\/2026 9:51:59 AM<\/p>\n

New research published by Rodwin et al in\u00a0JNCCN\u2014Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network<\/a>\u00a0has found that families of children receiving treatment for B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) experience substantial and lasting challenges beginning early after diagnosis, according to a multicenter study embedded in a Children\u2019s Oncology Group (COG) trial. The COG includes more than 200 member institutions that treat about 80% of all new cases of childhood and adolescent cancer\u2014therefore, these findings represent the experiences of most families.<\/p>\n

The study followed family outcomes over time in 420 children being treated for standard-risk B-cell ALL from September 2010 through April 2013. B-cell ALL is the most common childhood cancer, with treatment typically lasting about 2.5 years. Investigators found that adverse family outcomes developed quickly and remained common throughout the entire duration of therapy, including household employment changes and\/or changes in marital status. Among randomly assigned participants, 56.2% of families reported at least one household change within approximately 2 months of diagnosis, increasing to 81.2% by 26 months.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs providers, we should always be thinking about how to minimize the secondary impacts of cancer therapy,\u201d said lead author\u00a0Rozalyn L. Rodwin, MD, MHS, of Yale Cancer Center\/Smilow Cancer Hospital. \u201cThese findings highlight how cancer therapy can impact a child’s family financially, socially, and emotionally. Families are impacted early and continue to be impacted; therefore, support must be considered as part of cancer care from day one.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trial also compared family outcomes between those groups receiving maintenance vincristine\/dexamethasone given every 4 weeks (VCR\/DEX4) vs every 12 weeks (VCR\/DEX12). Families in the VCR\/DEX12 group were less likely to report at least $100 in leukemia-related expenses after random assignment, but most other family outcomes were similar between treatment groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had hoped this study would find that reduced treatment intensity led to reduced adverse family outcomes, but for the most part that wasn’t the case. This highlights the need for family support regardless of treatment intensity,\u201d noted Dr. Rodwin. \u201cI think that as providers, we should routinely screen caregivers for financial toxicity, and also make sure to ask about unexpected employment changes, and other changes in the home so that families can be directed to appropriate resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

“This study highlights critical findings that despite incredible improvements in survival for childhood B-cell ALL, the burden from treatment is still a really big deal,\u201d commented Melissa Acquazzino, MD, MS, of Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, who was not involved with this research. Dr. Acquazzino, who is also a member of the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines\u00ae) Panels for\u00a0Pediatric Aggressive Mature B-Cell Lymphomas<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Oncology<\/a>, continued: \u201cSignificant financial hardship and family distress can develop early on in treatment and remain throughout, negatively impacting the child’s physical and emotional health. Ongoing research and investment in multidisciplinary teams is needed to improve the experience and decrease any burden placed on our patients\u2019 families.”<\/p>\n

Dr. Acquazzino authored a longer response to this study that can also be found in JNCCN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

DISCLOSURE:\u00a0For full disclosures of the study authors, visit jnccn.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By The ASCO Post StaffPosted: 10\/16\/2026 10:04:00 AM Last Updated: 10\/16\/2026 9:51:59 AM New research published by Rodwin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":930470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,137],"class_list":["post-930469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/930470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}