For most families, childhood cancer is an unexpected occurrence. However, when a child is diagnosed with cancer, there is a profound impact not only on the child but on the other family members as well. When informed of the diagnosis, usually the first question a parent asks is: “Will my child die from his/her cancer?” The second question usually asked is: “What caused my child to get cancer?” Unfortunately, with the exception of a rare set of family cancer syndromes, the physician cannot provide an accurate response to the etiology question because of the limited evidence base. In an unprecedented manner, we have assembled many of the large pediatric oncology practices from around the state...

Read More

For most families, childhood cancer is an unexpected occurrence. However, when a child is diagnosed with cancer, there is a profound impact not only on the child but on the other family members as well. When informed of the diagnosis, usually the first question a parent asks is: “Will my child die from his/her cancer?” The second question usually asked is: “What caused my child to get cancer?” Unfortunately, with the exception of a rare set of family cancer syndromes, the physician cannot provide an accurate response to the etiology question because of the limited evidence base. In an unprecedented manner, we have assembled many of the large pediatric oncology practices from around the state of Texas to develop ACCESS-Texas to address the deficiencies in our knowledge about the causes of childhood and adolescent cancers. More than just something to tell the families when they ask why their child was afflicted, unraveling the causes can also lead to profound discoveries about the basic biology of these diseases. Once we more fully understand the causes of these diseases, we can then start to develop prevention strategies that may alleviate the anguish that the child and families endure. There is currently no central facility to provide rich data and specimens for the discovery of novel biomarkers for cancer predisposition, early detection, and diagnosis for childhood and adolescent cancers. Without such a resource, advances in our understanding of rare childhood and adolescent cancer will continue to lag far behind our knowledge for adult cancers. ACCESS-Texas would support such novel research. There are approximately 250 physicians and scientists throughout the state of Texas who are focused on understanding the causes and biology of adolescent and childhood cancers. The resources gathered through ACCESS-Texas would place Texas researchers in a better position to develop and lead international collaborations to explore novel risk factors for childhood cancers.

Read Less