Childhood-Leukemia Books

A great help. Full of factual information and practical tips from parents who've "been there." It's a valuable resource for those of us who have a child who has been diagnosed with leukemia.

I was loaned the 2nd Edition in the hospital after our son was diagnosed with ALL. This book is so valuable to the family to help you learn and weather through all the processes you could face during this difficult time. I knew I had to have my own copy and bought a second copy of the 3rd edition to share with other families through the hospital. Many other members of our family intend to buy their own copies of the book as well.

If you are hungry for information, buy this book. It calmed my nerves and made me a better team member in my son's fight against cancer.

Our Son was diagnosed in April of 2006 with ALL Leukemia. Trying to understand all of the terms, meds and schedules is hard enough. This book is written by a Mom with the help of her Doctor's expertise. It puts very scary helpless feelings in laymen's terms. This Mom goes into detail on how to comfort and successfully treat your child. She gives you her experiences on what works and what doesn't and what to expect. It is also an up- to- date book, whereas many books were written years ago. As a Mom who has gone thru 7+ months of this diagnosis, I wish someone would have given me this book the moment our Son was diagnosed. It's great for the whole family to read as well.

As a grandparent of a recently diagnosed 3 year old with ALL leukemia I have found this book an important resource for me to understand the treatment for this terrible disease. The descriptions of the types of chemo used and its side-effects have been particulalry valuable during the early months since the diagnosis. The book is comprehensive with all aspects of the disease and is full of anecdotal and suggestions for coping with this disease at all phases of treatment. It also offers lists of available resources to be accessed. I highly recommend this book for parents, family members and caregivers.

I have been a survivor of ALL Leukemia for 23 years now, and really wish there were books like this then. But now is when all these books are coming out, I am trying to find a book or information on how long term survivors can cope with the long term issues we face.

Topics like planning for college, buying a home, saving for retirement. These are issues my mother addressed with me, and now it is too late to start addressing these issues for me. For others it is not to late. We are surviving longer, and this is a new arena for the doctors and social workers need to address.

Basic consumer health information covers both adult and childhood leukemias in Leukemia Sourcebook, a fine title which ranges from diagnosis to alternative treatments, staging, and tips for life during and after diagnosis. Add a section of additional resources and you have an important health reference any comprehensive health collection should add.

When a child is sick with leukemia everyone's focus is on surviving. That is paramount. This book tells us what happens in the other areas of their lives once they do survive, and that becomes paramount. We should study the lives of these survivors to learn what we can to address these kids' needs more effectively. This book is filled with priceless insights that current kids who are surviving leukemia will wish we had studied with great commitment.

I suspect that others with different chronic health issues may be able to identify with the struggles of those in this book.

As a mother of 3, one of which has ALL Acute Lymphoblastic leukaemia, and a researcher, I want parents to know that there is more out there than this author offers. The tragedy is a moral one, while they have been using our children as guinee pigs for 30 years they have also shut out all other promising research of less harmful treatments that have shown good results. Only "inefficent" cyto toxins have been promoted and invested in. Fishbowl mentality not serving humanity but serving Big Pharma profits. My 3yr old has nearly died from cyto toxic chemo and this treatment predisposes patients to multiple other cancers in future. Cyto-toxins may be an appropriate first aid but as a prolonged treatment they are harmful in hidden and devistating ways. Hippocrates said "first thout should do no harm", perhaps looking outside the square as they did to find quantum physics, would be more successful and less devistating to families. We have lost everything due to the treatment alone. Alternatives provide more promise and better results but people are frightened and guilted into taking chemo, by MDs, when there are more efficent treatments for the long term with less harmful side effects. THis publication is good for the historical point, showing the investment since the great wars in cyto-toxins. But many competing and more successful treatments have been suppressed due to this treatment. Interestingly chemo has extreemly poor results with any other cancer and yet it is used universally in all cancers. Not exactly commonsense. Multinationals suppress our technology to enable continued profit from fossil fuels and the same authorities suppress competing research in this industry because they don't want to lose market share or admitt the limitations of the cyto-toxic industry. Parents are not given choice in this treatment and the population based statistics used do not cater for individual needs. It has supprised me how little medical professionals know about cutting edge research and how quickly new breakthroughs get lost or dissapear. MD's are only as good as the information provided to them and can the source of information be trusted given the cold war approach to cyto-toxic alternatives. The fishy smell is the economics. Ignorance and economics are putting our children at risk in prevention and cure. A Fact. Cyto-toxins cannot proport to be a cure or miracle, too many children have died from cyto toxic effects and experimentation that continues today. THe crime is in not looking beyond the first aid approach, beyond cyto-toxins, to focus on harm minimisation and treatments that are more efficient than current drugs. THis book is written by someone that is entrenched in the fishbowl mentality and has only painted part of the historical picture. Again he is only as good as the information provided to him. I am a researcher, I know what I am speaking of. Bring parents choice and harm minimisation or get off the podium. It took Medical professionals 200 years before they allowed Vitamin c to become a mainstream treatment of scurvey, shunning the proporter as a quack. OUr children are still dying from ignorance in 2005.

I came across this book while sitting in my daughter's hospital room still inundated with the news that she had childhhod leukemia. It was there amid the pamphlets and literature that symbolized the "dump" our lives had just taken.

I picked it up one sleepless night and, by the time I finished, I knew that my duaghter had every chance of surviving. We faced her two and a half year treatment with a new understanding that we were members of a group of children, families, medical practitioners and researchers who make a difference.

That was five years ago. This book set the tone for our struggles and victories large and small. It gave us perspective. It gave us hope and it gave us gratitude for all of the efforts that, ulitmately, gave my daughter back to me -- healthy and strong.

Childhood leukemia survival rates have increased dramatically in the last 20 years and this book gives historical perspective of significant treatment breakthroughs and scientific developments through the stories of several doctors and researchers. Excellent reference book for students and researchers, less applicable for medical consumers who may find current treatment-oriented books more useful.

Full of technical jargon. Difficult to understand. Would have liked practical information rather than a medical text.