VIVA Self Care Programme Webinar seeks to impart self-care skills and knowledge such as communication, mindfulness, diet, nutrition, and more to patients, caregivers, healthcare professionals, and even the public. VIVA believes in not only focusing on saving the lives of those with cancer but also enabling them to thrive.
Join us as Dr Cindy Ho from National University Hospital, Singapore talks to us about the 'Impact of Childhood Cancer on Growth' This session is open to all!
SYNOPSIS
There are various issues that can affect the growth in childhood cancer survivors.
First, childhood cancer can occur at a critical period of a child's life and impact growth and pubertal progress. This can result in a lack of pubertal growth spurt at a time of critical illness.
Other causes tend to happen as a delayed effect of cancer treatment or what we know as "late effects".
Gonadotoxic chemotherapy and ovarian radiation can cause primary ovarian failure which can result in poor pubertal progress and growth spurt. Cranial irradiation, spinal irradiation that some patients with brain tumour has to undergo as well as total body irradiation can have a profound impact on growth in more ways than one. Sometimes the use of certain drugs like steroids during cancer treatment can impact growth.
Lastly, complications from the disease or cancer treatment can also result in poor linear growth.
We will highlight some of these issues through a few case illustrations in this talk and hope it'll shed light into how growth can be affected and what can be done.
WATCH IT AGAIN
SPEAKER
Dr Cindy Ho
Senior Consultant, Division of Paediatric Endocrinology,
Department of Paediatrics,
Khoo Teck Puat – National University Children's Medical Institute,
National University Hospital
Assistant Professor, Department of Paediatrics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore
Singapore
Dr Cindy Ho is a paediatric endocrinologist at the Khoo Teck Puat-National University Children’s Medical Institute(KTP-NUCMI) Singapore and an adjunct associate professor at the affiliated Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine(NUS) Singapore.
In 2014, she obtained the Ministry of Health Award for the fellowship programme at The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne where she undertook training in late effects of childhood cancer and fertility preservation techniques. She also went to the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute where she learnt from many adult survivors of childhood cancer.
She is very passionate about improving the care of childhood cancer survivors and runs the dedicated paediatric late effects service in her hospital and is seeking to establish a fertility preservation service for children prior to cancer treatment.
MODERATOR:
Ms Laura Mei Lian Tan
Senior Nursing Lecturer, Global Outreach Program (Asia Pacific Region)
Paediatric Oncology, Department of Paediatrics
VIVA-University Children's Cancer Centre, National University Hospital
Ms Laura Tan works at the VIVA-University Children’s Cancer at the National University Hospital as the Global Outreach Senior Nursing Lecturer where she focuses on expanding Nursing training to nurses in the Asia Pacific Region. Helping the nurses in the region to achieve their vision of how Paediatric Oncology Nursing can help transform the lives of children diagnosed with childhood cancer.
She also works with St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, The Kandang Kerbau Women’s and Children Hospital and VIVA to establish the St Jude VIVA Asia Pacific Nursing Institute, focusing on planning and training regional nurses to enhance and provide quality nursing care for all diagnosed with childhood cancers. She supports and guide regional nurses in providing Patient Family Education to ensure a continuity of care whilst patients are nursed by caregiver at home.