Program Provides HOPE For Cancer Patients
from The Children's Hospital (TCH) News, November 2005
Hope is a concept cancer patients must believe in when battling cancer.
But once patients have conquered their cancer, they have the option of attending HOPE (Helping Oncology Patients Excel), a clinic at The Children’s Hospital. HOPE offers cancer-free patients a chance to come to Children’s to learn about their disease, its treatment, and how to live healthy lifestyles after surviving cancer.
HOPE was one of the first clinics of its kind in the country, and it was founded at Children’s. The clinic was created in 1987 to provide support and education to childhood cancer survivors of all ages. In the 1960s, the cure rate for childhood leukemia was around 5 percent; now the cure rate is more than 70 percent. With high survivor rates, the clinic is even more important since more children and adolescents are now learning to live life after cancer.
“For oncology patients to excel, they need to get information about the long-term side effects of the treatment they received and living as a cancer survivor,” said Brian Greffe, MD, associate professor of Pediatrics and director of the HOPE clinic. “They have a higher risk of being diagnosed with cancer later in life than people who have not survived childhood cancer.”
During the clinic, cancer survivors meet with at least five care providers, including an oncologist, a nurse, a social worker, a neurological psychologist and a dietitian.
“The multidisciplinary approach is what makes this program so successful,” Dr. Greffe said. “There are many psychological and physical issues that happen to patients after surgery and treatments, so it’s important that we understand and address all the needs of each patient.”
The clinic is held on the third and fourth Thursdays of each month in the Hematology, Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant Clinic on the fourth floor. The third Thursday is for oncology patients; the fourth Thursday is for bone-marrow transplant patients. Childhood cancer survivors diagnosed between the ages of birth to 18 are eligible. Patients also must meet the criteria of being five or more years past diagnosis and two years or more off therapy.
Many of the patients involved in HOPE are also participants in a nationwide study called Children Cancer Survivor Study, involving 27 institutions and more than 13,000 participants. The study is researching the medical, emotional, financial and psychological effects of pediatric cancer survivors diagnosed between 1970 to 1986.
“The information from this study is crucial in understanding how these survivors are doing both medically and emotionally,” Dr. Greffe said. “We can use the research to further advance our HOPE program.”
In the future, HOPE will be expanding as an outreach clinic for cancer survivors in Grand Junction . Also, the clinic will begin to focus on meeting with patients as they are finishing their treatments, creating a transition service into the HOPE clinic to identify issues early on.
Dr. Greffe said he enjoyed seeing the personal and professional growth that patients experience as a result of beating cancer, then moving on to lead happy lives. “We’re making a difference and giving HOPE to cancer survivors,” he said.
For more information on the HOPE clinic, please call x5441.
