Healing and Hope in Pediatric Cancer Care
January 27, 2025ID12676
To CiteDCA Citation Guide
- 00:00Funding for Yale Cancer Answers
- 00:02is provided by Smilow Cancer
- 00:04Hospital.
- 00:06Welcome to Yale Cancer Answers
- 00:08with the director of the
- 00:09Yale Cancer Center, doctor Eric
- 00:11Winer.
- 00:12Yale Cancer Answers features conversations
- 00:14with oncologists
- 00:15and specialists who are on
- 00:16the forefront of the battle
- 00:18to fight cancer.
- 00:19This week, it's a conversation
- 00:20about the care of pediatric
- 00:22patients with cancer with doctor
- 00:23Prasanna Ananth.
- 00:25Doctor Ananth is an associate
- 00:26professor of pediatrics and hematology
- 00:29oncology at the Yale School
- 00:30of Medicine.
- 00:31Here's doctor Winer.
- 00:33Maybe you could just tell
- 00:35us a little bit about
- 00:36your background.
- 00:38Tell us
- 00:40how you got to where
- 00:41you are.
- 00:42I've always been very interested in
- 00:45the illness experience
- 00:47and gravitated naturally
- 00:50from probably high school onwards
- 00:51towards
- 00:52working with children. So pediatrics
- 00:55was a natural fit.
- 00:57And then as
- 00:58a final year medical student,
- 01:00I had a
- 01:02visiting elective
- 01:04at Boston Children's Hospital. And
- 01:06while I was there, I
- 01:08met my future and longtime
- 01:10mentor, doctor Joanne Wolf.
- 01:13And here was a
- 01:16phenomenal, powerful woman who is
- 01:19trained as a pediatric
- 01:20oncologist,
- 01:21so a cancer specialist, as
- 01:23well as a pediatric palliative
- 01:25care doctor.
- 01:27She founded pretty much
- 01:29the first palliative care program
- 01:31in this entire country and
- 01:34is also a researcher and a
- 01:38mom of three kids.
- 01:39And having met her, I
- 01:41was just really inspired
- 01:43by the work that she
- 01:44did, by her
- 01:46demeanor, her approach,
- 01:48her passion for the work
- 01:51that she engaged in, and
- 01:53just the
- 01:55intellectual
- 01:56inquiry as well as the
- 01:58sort of practical
- 01:59aspects of pediatric palliative care
- 02:01research. So that's really sort
- 02:03of where I derived my
- 02:04inspiration.
- 02:05And let me just say, having
- 02:07been at Dana Farber for
- 02:09many years,
- 02:10Joanne was my colleague
- 02:14for many of those years,
- 02:15if not all of those
- 02:16years.
- 02:20And on some level, she
- 02:22founded this whole field of
- 02:24pediatric palliative care, and is an
- 02:26amazing person who's now the
- 02:28chair of pediatrics at Mass
- 02:30General Hospital.
- 02:37You came to Yale a
- 02:38number of years ago, and
- 02:40here you both
- 02:42spend some time taking care
- 02:44of kids
- 02:45and also do research focused
- 02:48on palliative care.
- 02:49Let's first
- 02:51talk about
- 02:52cancer in children.
- 02:54Thankfully,
- 02:55this is not something we
- 02:56talk about all that often
- 02:58because, thankfully, it's not very
- 03:00common. Can you speak to
- 03:01that a little bit?
- 03:04As you mentioned, it is
- 03:06very rare for a child
- 03:07or an adolescent to
- 03:10experience cancer.
- 03:11Probably around
- 03:13sixteen thousand children and adolescents
- 03:15are diagnosed with cancer every
- 03:17year
- 03:18in the United States.
- 03:20It's much higher across
- 03:22the globe, but fortunately in
- 03:24the United States, we have,
- 03:27even in rural communities, we
- 03:28have pretty good access to
- 03:30medical care for kids with
- 03:31cancer.
- 03:33So that
- 03:35amounts to about one in
- 03:37every two hundred and sixty children
- 03:39who might experience cancer in
- 03:41a given year.
- 03:42To put that in context, if
- 03:44you just look at breast
- 03:45cancer, for example,
- 03:47it's
- 03:48far less than ten percent
- 03:50of the number of breast
- 03:51cancer cases each year
- 03:53of all kids with
- 03:55cancer.
- 03:56And breast cancer is just one
- 03:57of many cancers in adults.
- 04:02Across the country,
- 04:05access to care seems to
- 04:06be okay?
- 04:08Well, in general, it's a
- 04:10little bit different from treatment
- 04:12of adult cancers in that we
- 04:16generally treat childhood cancers at
- 04:18major cancer centers.
- 04:21So we do know that
- 04:23in some
- 04:24locales, like the state of
- 04:26California where there's a lot
- 04:27of rural areas and
- 04:31very limited access to
- 04:34large cancer centers,
- 04:35that there can be gaps
- 04:37in care.
- 04:38But what is sort of
- 04:40different about childhood cancer treatment
- 04:42is that
- 04:43it's very standardized.
- 04:45So we often follow
- 04:48protocols
- 04:49according to a big cooperative
- 04:51clinical trials group, the Children's
- 04:53Oncology Group.
- 04:55So for the most part,
- 04:57pretty much anywhere you go
- 04:58in the country,
- 05:00if you're seeing an oncologist
- 05:01for a childhood onset cancer,
- 05:04likely you will be offered
- 05:05treatment according
- 05:08to the
- 05:09latest published trial through the
- 05:11Children's Oncology Group
- 05:14or based on a new
- 05:16clinical trial that they're rolling
- 05:17out.
- 05:18And are there many kids in clinical
- 05:20trials?
- 05:24Yeah, it's nice in that there
- 05:26is this standardization.
- 05:28And a lot
- 05:29of times families that are
- 05:31newly diagnosed are sort of
- 05:33panicking,
- 05:34understandably,
- 05:35and trying to figure out
- 05:37where the best place is
- 05:38to go for care.
- 05:40And what I
- 05:41always tell families is that,
- 05:43for the most part, no
- 05:44matter where you go in
- 05:46the country
- 05:47there will be
- 05:48differences in terms of the
- 05:51services that you have access to
- 05:54and the
- 05:56types of doctors, the surgeons,
- 05:57the radiation oncologists, etcetera.
- 06:00However, the treatment itself
- 06:02is pretty standard
- 06:05and there will be very
- 06:07minimal to no differences
- 06:08regardless of where you go.
- 06:12And of the cancers that
- 06:14occur in children,
- 06:15what are the most common?
- 06:17They're very different than
- 06:19in general adult cancers.
- 06:22Yeah. So the most common
- 06:23types of cancers that we
- 06:25see in kids
- 06:26and adolescents are leukemias
- 06:28and lymphomas, so cancers of
- 06:31blood cells and of lymph
- 06:33nodes.
- 06:34And is there a reason
- 06:36for that?
- 06:37You know, I don't know.
- 06:39I mean, we're trying to
- 06:40understand more and more through
- 06:42our clinical trials about what
- 06:45predisposes
- 06:46a child to cancer,
- 06:47and I think there's a
- 06:49growing understanding that most children
- 06:51with cancer, especially children who
- 06:53are really young who develop
- 06:55cancer,
- 06:56have probably inherited
- 06:58some sort of predisposition,
- 06:59but we're really
- 07:01lacking an understanding of
- 07:04what causes cancer in kids.
- 07:06And that is a
- 07:08real shift from the adult
- 07:10world where a lot of
- 07:12cancers arise in people who
- 07:13have been long time smokers
- 07:15or who
- 07:17have other sort
- 07:18of lifestyle choices that have
- 07:20predisposed them. It's not the
- 07:22case in kids.
- 07:24And in children,
- 07:27leukemia typically is acute leukemia.
- 07:30It's not a chronic leukemia.
- 07:33It is diagnosed
- 07:34somewhat
- 07:36abruptly. Someone has symptoms
- 07:38and they are diagnosed pretty
- 07:40quickly usually.
- 07:42But the outcome is very
- 07:43different
- 07:44than it is in
- 07:45adults.
- 07:46Mayeb you could tell us a little bit
- 07:47about what the usual
- 07:50course is for a child
- 07:51with leukemia.
- 07:54As you pointed out, usually
- 07:56it's sort of
- 07:57abrupt or acute onset, and
- 07:59that can come with a
- 08:01lot of challenges both in
- 08:02terms of diagnosing
- 08:05and expediting treatment,
- 08:07and then also in terms
- 08:08of adjustment for families and
- 08:10children. We have to move
- 08:12very, very quickly.
- 08:15The likelihood of cure for
- 08:17the vast majority of leukemias
- 08:19and lymphomas is greater
- 08:21than eighty five percent.
- 08:23Recently,
- 08:24there has been a novel
- 08:26targeted therapy
- 08:28that has
- 08:29improved
- 08:30the outcomes for kids with
- 08:32acute leukemia,
- 08:34the most common type of
- 08:35leukemia, ALL, to
- 08:38a greater than ninety five,
- 08:40almost ninety eight percent
- 08:42likelihood of cure. And so
- 08:44we've really moved
- 08:46quickly, because
- 08:48if you think back to
- 08:49honestly, like, maybe seventy years
- 08:51ago, that was when
- 08:53leukemia treatments were even being
- 08:55introduced
- 08:56in kids.
- 09:00And the likelihood of cure was very,
- 09:01very low.
- 09:02Now we're curing
- 09:05virtually almost all children with
- 09:07leukemia.
- 09:09We fortunately
- 09:10have amazing outcomes,
- 09:12and we have a lot
- 09:13of really great treatments.
- 09:16That's not to say that
- 09:17it isn't grueling. Leukemia treatment
- 09:20lasts over
- 09:21two years.
- 09:22So as compared with a
- 09:24lot of cancers in adults,
- 09:27you know, it's a
- 09:28lot of visits to the
- 09:29cancer clinic,
- 09:31a lot of hospitalizations,
- 09:33and especially in the first
- 09:35six months can be
- 09:37very, very intensive.
- 09:42And with this new targeted therapy,
- 09:44have you been able to
- 09:46peel back any of the
- 09:47other therapy, or is that
- 09:49a hope for the future?
- 09:50I think that's a hope
- 09:51for the future. It's a
- 09:52little too soon to tell.
- 09:54This particular therapy, blinatumumab,
- 09:58has been introduced
- 10:00in the setting of children
- 10:02with relapsed leukemia, and only
- 10:05recently in a trial in
- 10:06the last couple of years
- 10:07was introduced
- 10:08earlier on in cancer treatment.
- 10:11And it was the subject
- 10:13of a New England Journal
- 10:15paper in December,
- 10:18and a lot of media
- 10:19coverage because the outcomes in
- 10:21this trial that's still ongoing
- 10:24were
- 10:25so favorable towards children who
- 10:28had received blanatumumab
- 10:29upfront that they had to
- 10:31close the trial early.
- 10:33Wow.
- 10:35That's kind of amazing, and I
- 10:36think the hope would be
- 10:37to try to reduce some
- 10:40of the toxic chemotherapies
- 10:42because, you know, other chemo
- 10:44medications, unfortunately, can't differentiate between
- 10:47healthy cells and cancer cells.
- 10:49We have very
- 10:50few targeted therapies that are
- 10:51shown to be effective in
- 10:53pediatric cancers. And so, you
- 10:55know, now that we know
- 10:56this, the idea would be
- 10:58to try to remove
- 10:59or minimize some of those
- 11:01more toxic chemotherapies
- 11:05that have long term side effects.
- 11:07And apart from leukemias and
- 11:09lymphomas,
- 11:10the other cancers in kids
- 11:13that strikes me that cancers
- 11:15that involve the brain are
- 11:17pretty common.
- 11:19They're not very common.
- 11:21What's unfortunate about a lot
- 11:23of brain tumors in children
- 11:25is that
- 11:26they are often not curable.
- 11:29And so that's
- 11:30why we just hear about
- 11:31them a lot.
- 11:33Yeah. And the same goes,
- 11:34unfortunately,
- 11:35for solid tumors. Sometimes they
- 11:37can behave more aggressively,
- 11:39especially in adolescents and young
- 11:42adults.
- 11:43But fortunately, brain tumors and
- 11:45solid tumors outside of the
- 11:47brain are very, very rare.
- 11:48And is that just because
- 11:50everything apart from leukemia and
- 11:51lymphoma is rare?
- 11:53I think so.
- 11:56There's leukemia and lymphoma,
- 11:58and they're really one and two
- 12:00then there isn't really three.
- 12:02Everything else is like ten.
- 12:04That's right.
- 12:10I know that the treatment
- 12:11of children who have various
- 12:13types of brain tumors
- 12:15can be quite challenging.
- 12:17That's right. Yeah.
- 12:19And, you know, the other
- 12:21thing that I think
- 12:22that people have become more
- 12:24and more aware of over
- 12:26the last
- 12:28decade or more
- 12:31is that there can be
- 12:32long term consequences
- 12:36of this therapy.
- 12:38And for that matter, people
- 12:39can get second cancers both
- 12:41from the therapy and perhaps
- 12:42because they have some predisposition.
- 12:46That's right. The long term
- 12:50consequences
- 12:51that we worry about the
- 12:53most are
- 12:55infertility, unfortunately.
- 12:57So for boys and men,
- 12:58low sperm count. For girls
- 13:00and young women,
- 13:02premature ovarian insufficiency.
- 13:05Unfortunately,
- 13:07early
- 13:07sort of failure of the
- 13:08ovaries to function.
- 13:13It depends a little bit
- 13:14on what sorts of treatments
- 13:16you've received. So we worry
- 13:17about radiation
- 13:18related growth challenges,
- 13:21bone health in cancers that
- 13:22we treat with a lot
- 13:23of steroids.
- 13:25A lot of those side
- 13:26effects are manageable
- 13:28with lifestyle changes, with medications,
- 13:31and with close follow-up.
- 13:34The risk of a second
- 13:36cancer related to chemotherapy is
- 13:38pretty low. We estimate probably
- 13:40less than one percent of
- 13:42children
- 13:43will have that, but that's
- 13:44why it's just so critically
- 13:45important even after a child
- 13:47is done with treatment to
- 13:48continue to follow-up really closely
- 13:50with their doctors and their
- 13:52medical team.
- 13:53Well, that's really helpful.
- 13:55I'm certainly getting educated.
- 13:58I think we're gonna
- 13:59take a one minute break,
- 14:01and then we'll be back
- 14:03and proceed with the
- 14:05second half of the show.
- 14:07Funding for Yale Cancer Answers
- 14:08comes from Smilow Cancer Hospital,
- 14:11where the Lung Cancer Screening
- 14:12Program provides screening to those
- 14:14at risk for lung cancer
- 14:16and individualized
- 14:17state of the art evaluation
- 14:18of lung nodules.
- 14:20To learn more, visit smilowcancerhospital
- 14:23dot org.
- 14:25There are many obstacles to
- 14:27face when quitting smoking as
- 14:28smoking involves the potent drug
- 14:30nicotine.
- 14:31Quitting smoking is a very
- 14:32important lifestyle change especially for
- 14:35patients undergoing cancer treatment as
- 14:37it's been shown to positively
- 14:39impact response to treatments,
- 14:41decrease the likelihood that patients
- 14:43will develop second malignancies,
- 14:45and increase rates of survival.
- 14:47Tobacco treatment programs are currently
- 14:49being offered at federally designated
- 14:51comprehensive cancer centers, such as
- 14:53Yale Cancer Center and
- 14:55Smilow Cancer Hospital.
- 14:57All treatment components are evidence
- 14:59based and patients are treated
- 15:00with FDA approved first line
- 15:02medications
- 15:03as well as smoking cessation
- 15:05counseling that stresses appropriate coping
- 15:07skills.
- 15:08More information is available at
- 15:10yale cancer center dot org.
- 15:12You're listening to Connecticut Public
- 15:14Radio.
- 15:16This is Eric Winer with
- 15:17Yale Cancer Answers, and I'm
- 15:19back with our guest,
- 15:21doctor Prasanna Ananth,
- 15:24who is a pediatric
- 15:26hematologist
- 15:27oncologist. We've been talking about
- 15:28pediatric cancer.
- 15:30We're gonna talk just a
- 15:31little bit more about that,
- 15:32and then we're gonna get
- 15:33into some of her research.
- 15:36I just wanted to ask
- 15:37youm about
- 15:39pediatric cancer survivorship
- 15:41programs
- 15:42and what has become
- 15:45the standard
- 15:46these days,
- 15:48and finally,
- 15:50how you think about the
- 15:52transition to adulthood
- 15:54when
- 15:55people who have been seeing
- 15:56their pediatrician for a long,
- 15:58long time
- 15:59are twenty six years old
- 16:01and still going to the
- 16:01children's hospital.
- 16:03Yeah. So it's interesting.
- 16:06Survivorship
- 16:07care has really evolved.
- 16:10It is
- 16:12conceived of as very interdisciplinary.
- 16:14So most survivorship clinics are
- 16:16staffed by
- 16:18physicians, nurse practitioners,
- 16:19dietitians,
- 16:21psychologists,
- 16:22endocrinologists,
- 16:24cardiologists.
- 16:25I think there's a
- 16:27general
- 16:29consensus in the field that
- 16:33survivorship
- 16:34requires
- 16:35all of this interdisciplinary
- 16:37input and that the effects
- 16:39of childhood cancer can really
- 16:41last.
- 16:43So one of
- 16:45the things that I find
- 16:46a lot of
- 16:48folks who take care of
- 16:49adults are really surprised by
- 16:51is that we take care
- 16:52of children
- 16:54anywhere from birth all the
- 16:56way until they fall off
- 16:57their parents' health insurance. So
- 16:59we sometimes take care of
- 17:00adults.
- 17:01In fact,
- 17:02I had on my list
- 17:04a patient who is
- 17:07a childhood cancer survivor who
- 17:09is thirty years old.
- 17:11And I can't say that
- 17:12I feel
- 17:13entirely comfortable
- 17:14taking care of thirty year
- 17:16olds,
- 17:17you know, because there's a
- 17:17lot of other chronic health
- 17:19problems that I don't have
- 17:20the skills to necessarily manage.
- 17:22However, we really rely heavily
- 17:24upon our colleagues in the
- 17:26adult world.
- 17:27And for most survivors
- 17:29they continue to come
- 17:31back at least to the
- 17:32survivorship clinic at least once
- 17:35a year
- 17:35for many years after cancer
- 17:38therapy. So it depends
- 17:40a little bit on what
- 17:41type of cancer you've had,
- 17:43but for most children with
- 17:44cancer, they come back at
- 17:46least in the first several
- 17:47years very frequently to the
- 17:49oncology clinic. And we do
- 17:51labs, we do an exam,
- 17:53and carefully monitor for recurrence
- 17:55of that cancer and for
- 17:57any of the side effects
- 17:58and counsel around
- 18:00late effects as well.
- 18:02Usually, about two years
- 18:05after they've completed therapy, we
- 18:07will also refer them to
- 18:08our dedicated survivorship clinic for
- 18:11some added counseling
- 18:12and guidance around
- 18:14specific late effects to be
- 18:16aware of.
- 18:17And then at about five
- 18:19years out, we can often
- 18:21start to see patients once
- 18:22a year in our clinic and
- 18:25try to transition, especially for
- 18:27those adolescents and young adults,
- 18:28you know, people that are
- 18:30at college or working, etcetera,
- 18:32who may have some difficulty
- 18:34coming to appointments regularly, we
- 18:35try to transition some of
- 18:37that care to primary care
- 18:39providers.
- 18:41And what I will say
- 18:42is that different primary care
- 18:44providers have differing levels of
- 18:47comfort with that.
- 18:48So some feel perfectly fine
- 18:50with receiving the
- 18:52guidelines and managing the sort
- 18:54of long term care,
- 18:55and others aren't as familiar
- 18:57with that. And that's very
- 18:59understandable. And so that's why
- 19:00the survivorship clinic exists to
- 19:02be able to help support
- 19:04those primary care doctors in
- 19:06that multidisciplinary
- 19:07way.
- 19:08Primary care doctors are
- 19:10under a great deal of
- 19:11stress these days. They have
- 19:12fifteen minutes to
- 19:14see a patient and
- 19:18I think over time,
- 19:19it's
- 19:21probably likely
- 19:22that they'll be less and
- 19:23less comfortable in this
- 19:25arena.
- 19:26That's right. But, we'll see.
- 19:30As we
- 19:31segue into your research, I
- 19:33just wanna ask one other
- 19:34question
- 19:35that's more general, which is
- 19:37about the families
- 19:40and what this is like
- 19:42for a family. I mean,
- 19:45I can only imagine
- 19:47as a parent
- 19:48what it would be like
- 19:49to have my child diagnosed
- 19:51with any serious illness
- 19:54and in particular
- 19:55cancer.
- 19:58Well, it's as you
- 20:00stated, it's unimaginably
- 20:02difficult for families.
- 20:05We know that cancer
- 20:06treatment
- 20:07disrupts
- 20:09family financial,
- 20:12stability.
- 20:13Sometimes families experience food and
- 20:16housing instability.
- 20:18You know, many families
- 20:20can't work.
- 20:23The other children in
- 20:24the household will be
- 20:26undoubtedly
- 20:27affected, and so it is
- 20:29a whole family
- 20:31disruption.
- 20:34And when you talk to someone
- 20:35who had a sibling with
- 20:37cancer
- 20:38as an adult,
- 20:39I've always
- 20:41been struck that so
- 20:43much a part of their childhood
- 20:45is their sibling who had
- 20:47the cancer no matter
- 20:48what happened with that sibling.
- 20:50Right. I mean, it is
- 20:51a whole family
- 20:53experience. And in part, I
- 20:54think for a lot of
- 20:55us who work in this
- 20:56world,
- 20:57this is what is both
- 21:00most challenging about this work
- 21:02and
- 21:03the most inspiring.
- 21:04I mean, I went
- 21:06into this field primarily because
- 21:08it was such a beautiful
- 21:09opportunity to be able to
- 21:11shepherd families through their treatment
- 21:13and to sit with them
- 21:14in their grief,
- 21:16and really
- 21:18be a part of an
- 21:19extremely difficult experience for
- 21:22many families.
- 21:23And that longitudinal
- 21:25relationship is really, really important
- 21:28and very fulfilling.
- 21:30So
- 21:32the good news
- 21:33is most children with cancer
- 21:36survive,
- 21:37and the majority of those
- 21:39survive well and go on
- 21:41and lead
- 21:44very full lives.
- 21:46The
- 21:47bad news is that some
- 21:48of them don't. It's a
- 21:49small proportion, but they exist.
- 21:52And your research has focused
- 21:54on
- 21:55how we care
- 21:57for those
- 21:59patients and families, those children
- 22:01and families
- 22:02where
- 22:04cure is no longer possible.
- 22:07Tell us about that if
- 22:08you would.
- 22:12As I mentioned
- 22:13earlier that I was really
- 22:15inspired
- 22:16largely by a mentor
- 22:18and then, of course, clinical
- 22:20experiences.
- 22:21So when I was in
- 22:22training for pediatric
- 22:24hematology and oncology, I had
- 22:26a number of experiences
- 22:28of children with advanced or
- 22:30incurable cancer
- 22:32who had really difficult
- 22:34and contentious
- 22:36last weeks and months of
- 22:38life. So there was
- 22:39disagreement between the
- 22:41care team and the family
- 22:42or between the patient and
- 22:43the family,
- 22:45and those
- 22:46experiences
- 22:47kept occurring.
- 22:49And it really made me
- 22:52think about what
- 22:53good
- 22:54end of life care looks
- 22:56like, what good advanced cancer
- 22:58care looks like. And we
- 22:59are talking about a very
- 23:00small proportion of patients, fifteen
- 23:02percent to twenty percent of
- 23:04kids with cancer will not
- 23:06be cured.
- 23:08And we also now have,
- 23:10as I mentioned earlier, a
- 23:11lot of targeted therapies, a
- 23:12lot of novel treatments that
- 23:14help these children
- 23:16live for a very long
- 23:17time with a high quality
- 23:19of life or a reasonable
- 23:20quality of life.
- 23:22But
- 23:23I really focus my research
- 23:25in this area of
- 23:28where are the gaps in
- 23:29the provision of
- 23:31care for these children with
- 23:33advanced cancer? Where can we
- 23:35do better?
- 23:38And
- 23:40are the problems at the
- 23:42end of life
- 23:44more prominent in older children,
- 23:48where
- 23:51the patient,
- 23:52him or herself, is trying
- 23:54to
- 23:55take more control?
- 23:58I wouldn't say that it's
- 24:00more prominent in older children,
- 24:02but I do think that
- 24:03the problems and the challenges
- 24:04are different. As adolescents and
- 24:07young adults,
- 24:08increase their sense of agency
- 24:12and become more independent,
- 24:15there is
- 24:16another layer to
- 24:18decision making and shared decision
- 24:21making. So I do think it
- 24:23adds some complexity.
- 24:26And there are a lot
- 24:27of amazing investigators who are
- 24:30focusing their work on trying
- 24:31to improve advanced cancer care
- 24:33for adolescents and young adults.
- 24:35I've mostly focused my research
- 24:37on younger children in order
- 24:39to sort of carve out
- 24:40a niche for myself.
- 24:42That being said, a lot
- 24:43of what we've learned in
- 24:44our research applies to older
- 24:47adolescents and young adults.
- 24:49And so one could imagine
- 24:51that you could make
- 24:54that end of life care
- 24:56easier
- 24:56by preparing people more. On
- 24:59the other hand, when someone
- 25:01is newly diagnosed,
- 25:03talking about
- 25:04not doing well is not
- 25:06exactly what they wanna hear.
- 25:08So there's a limitation
- 25:10there, I would imagine.
- 25:12Yeah. I mean a lot
- 25:14of these
- 25:16conversations
- 25:17are a process.
- 25:21It is very
- 25:23rare that we would tell
- 25:24someone at the initial diagnosis
- 25:26that their cancer is not
- 25:28curable,
- 25:30with a few exceptions. There
- 25:32are some
- 25:33brain tumors, for example, that
- 25:35are universally, unfortunately,
- 25:38not curable. And so we
- 25:39can extend life, but we
- 25:40can't necessarily cure.
- 25:42And so I really
- 25:44value honesty and truth telling
- 25:47in my
- 25:48communication and
- 25:50that approach has really been
- 25:52bolstered by all of the
- 25:55experiential
- 25:56learning,
- 25:57and learning from masters in
- 25:59palliative care,
- 26:00honestly.
- 26:01I am not a clinical
- 26:03palliative care practitioner.
- 26:05That being said, there's a
- 26:07lot that we can learn
- 26:08as clinicians who take
- 26:10care of children with serious
- 26:11illness, we can learn a
- 26:12ton from the ways in
- 26:14which pediatric palliative care clinicians
- 26:16communicate.
- 26:18But you are very
- 26:19much the one who's
- 26:22walking that journey with the
- 26:23patient and family.
- 26:25That's right. And
- 26:27introducing
- 26:27ideas about
- 26:29maybe cure isn't possible
- 26:31when that comes up.
- 26:33I mean, I often
- 26:35and I have, of course,
- 26:36a very different experience as
- 26:38an adult cancer doctor.
- 26:40But I generally find that
- 26:43over time as you
- 26:46go through an illness with
- 26:47a patient that
- 26:49as a doctor and as
- 26:51a patient, you're often in
- 26:53sync. And
- 26:55that's the ideal situation, of
- 26:56course.
- 26:58Yeah. I mean, I think
- 27:00that
- 27:01the research shows that
- 27:04pediatric oncologists
- 27:05are variable in their ability
- 27:07to kind of walk that
- 27:08journey and be honest.
- 27:12It can be really challenging,
- 27:14and it's sort of interesting
- 27:16being in sort of both
- 27:17worlds, being a pediatric
- 27:19palliative care researcher as well
- 27:20as a pediatric oncologist.
- 27:22I know that it's really
- 27:24difficult to have honest conversations
- 27:26about the curability or lack
- 27:28of curability of a particular
- 27:29cancer.
- 27:30And at the same and
- 27:31I know that a lot
- 27:32of my peers in pediatric
- 27:34oncology struggle with that tension.
- 27:37At the same time, we
- 27:38also know that preparation is
- 27:40better, honesty
- 27:42is better.
- 27:44And being very, very forthright
- 27:47about prognosis
- 27:48helps families prepare, helps families
- 27:51grieve,
- 27:52and helps them long term
- 27:54in their bereavement.
- 27:56And have you or others
- 27:58studied
- 28:00interventions
- 28:01for the pediatric
- 28:04oncologists
- 28:04as a way of helping
- 28:06to improve end of life
- 28:08care for children and families?
- 28:11So my research is not
- 28:13intervention focused, but there are
- 28:15a number of people who
- 28:16are very interested in trying
- 28:19to intervene on the style
- 28:21of communication.
- 28:23So communication research is a huge
- 28:26and impactful area of research
- 28:28in our world.
- 28:29Doctor Prasanna Ananth is an
- 28:31associate professor of pediatrics and
- 28:33hematology oncology at the Yale
- 28:35School of Medicine.
- 28:37If you have questions, the
- 28:38address is cancer answers at
- 28:40yale dot edu,
- 28:41and past editions of the
- 28:42program are available in audio
- 28:44and written form at yale
- 28:45cancer center dot org
- 28:47we hope you'll join us
- 28:48next time to learn more
- 28:49about the fight against cancer
- 28:51funding for Yale Cancer Answers
- 28:52is provided by Smilow Cancer
- 28:54Hospital.