A fighter

Alex Dobay just graduated from high school. In the five years it took him to complete high school, he fought off non-Hodgkins lymphoma twice, but has now been diagnosed with acute myloid leukemia that could have been caused by his earlier chemotherapy treatments. He now faces a second bone-marrow transplant.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has the story.

Childhood cancer legislation

This legislation, which comes from Ohio's own Rep. Deborah Pryce, would provide $150 million over five years for expanded pediatric cancer research. The bill is named for her daughter, who died at the age of nine from neuroblastoma.

More late effects

Hey... I had this drug.

Cost of Living

This came from your's truly back in November, along with a first-person sidebar.

The first-person piece is my most concise writing on what it is like to be a long-term survivor of childhood cancer.

Childhood cancer rates by region

This isn't late-effects related, but it is childhood cancer related. And you can't have late-effects without surviving childhood cancer.

Apparently childhood cancer strikes at a higher rate in the Northeast than anywhere else in the country. The Midwest doesn't lag far behind, though.

Here's the actual study, courtesy of Pediatrics: Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Learning to Live Again

This is a nice piece from the Ottawa Sun, which frames late-effects around the severe effects suffered by a girl who had a brain tumor.