Dear Charles Hemenway, MD, phD & Shirley Pulawski (author of the Article New movie portrays teen cancer unrealistically, expert says),

  My children and I have been eagerly waiting for The Fault in Our Stars, authored by John Green (#TFIOS) to hit the big screen next week. To watch the trailer of this movie click here.  We have all read it. My first read was painful, I’ll admit. Throughout the entire book I found myself praying for these fictional characters to beat the odds and just pull through. Be the exception to the 46/7 rule. If you’re reading this and you are not aware of 46/7: each school day in America, 46 children are diagnosed with one form or another of pediatric cancer. FORTY SIX. That is the average of TWO plus elementary age classroom. EVERY.SINGLE. DAY. Every school day – 7 children will die. Is this a “scare” tactic? NO. It’s the truth. (If you are a detail person and really need to see my history with childhood cancer, please scroll to the very first blog post on this (my personal) blog. If it’s alarming to you, we hope that it propels you into ACTION. If you have never experienced childhood cancer in your family – how lucky you are. But know this, the day before their child received their cancer diagnosis – cancer parents were just like you. They did nothing wrong, This lottery doesn’t discriminate and all babies are entered into the lottery without your permission.

7 pairs of shoes that will be empty by the end of today.

First, let me dispel any of the following myths that non-supporters may form in their minds about myself and the purpose of this blog post. As you’ll see, I’ve gotten this before. I am well-equipped and well-versed with my reply.

MOST COMMON MYTH 1. I am not, repeat NOT – the mother of a cancer child. I am not “sick with grief over the death of my own child” (which therefore makes me emotional and not clearly able to process thoughts). Supporting evidence to prove this myth. 1. Both of my living children (yes, I did lose late term pregnancies; they did not have the chance to get childhood cancer) are indeed healthy and cancer free. Thank-you, Jesus! 2. I know it’s hard to believe, but there are some advocates out there who (no matter what the situation – childhood cancer, school nurse gone wrong, etc) that will do whatever it takes to ensure ALL children are safe, protected and have advocates. Of course any mother could go to prison for any violation of her own children; then there’s those like me – who could go for ANY child.

Now, before we begin specifically, here is another myth that I’ll dispel before your mind even goes there. MYTH: “This woman must be a physician-hater. I read somewhere she had a botched surgical procedure with life-long effects”. TRUTH: Although I did have a botched surgical procedure in 1996 and am the winner-winner-chicken-dinner of post ERCP chronic non-alcoholic pancreatitis, I have devoted the last 21 years of my professional career to the strategical implementation, marketing, build-out, launching and day to day Practice Administration of highly successful private medical practices of not only Family Practice – but also the specialities of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Interventional Pain Management, Endocrinology & Diabetes, Pulmonology & Dermatology. I am educated and well-versed in these specialties and all Federal and State Compliance Programs. It could be said, that I am one of the biggest advocates for the private practice Physician. It has been said, that I am tough to work for, but alas, numbers don’t lie and even with the slippery downward slope of medicine today, my practices bottom lines are thriving.

I am glad that has been cleared up so we can get to the heart (or the point) of this blog post. This morning, I read an article on helio.com titled “New movie portrays teen cancer unrealistically, expert says”. The expert was you, Dr. Hemenway. It has crossed my mind that perhaps Ms. Shirley Pulawski didn’t send you a draft of this article for your review prior to it’s launch. It could have happened that way, but you may review this and ask for a couple of addendums in the name of liability and all.

Dr. Hemenway, this article angered me. Not in a little way. In a BIG way. It began early in the third paragraph where you are quoted as stating that “outcomes for most pediatric cancers are much better than the movie portrays, and the types of cancer the teens experience are rare.” I absolutely can see how your background would lead to a jaded opinion such as this. But let’s tell the truth, shall we? Okay, since your work is in Hematology/Oncology research, I am going to make a laywoman’s assumption that you have vast experience in numbers pertaining to Leukemias and/or cancer of the blood. True? Okay. In fact, Doctor, the reason that the general population thinks that childhood cancer is not an epidemic problem today, is because professionals such as yourself continue to state that these cancers are “rare” and that the “overall cure rate” is 70%. You are wrong, sir. The only reason this number can even closely be somewhat this high is because all Leukemia’s are lumped into this number.  Praise God, the success rate of primary Leukemia’s is HIGH. But, let’s back those out. Now – what is the cure rate of all other childhood cancers? NOT 70%. Can you see how this can be misleading? (Yes, for your field of study, this looks fantastic (& may even lend to continued research dollars) but your point was – the movie doesn’t paint a realistic picture.) The movie isn’t portraying Leukemia. Therefore, this movie can not portray rainbows and ponies and “most kids with cancer do very well, because that makes everyone feel better”.  I challenge you to review – your numbers aren’t realistic overall either. Please, let’s be real.

Cancer is still the leading cause of death from disease among U.S. children over the ripe age of 1. Cancer kills MORE children than cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, AIDS, asthma and juvenile diabetes combined. In the United States in children from birth to age 19, more than 18,000 cases of cancer are diagnosed each year. While progress against childhood cancer has been made, cure rates for most pediatric cancers remain below 40% (not 70%)! This overall number is inflated when blood cancers are included. I’d also point out that NONE of the characters in TFIOS had the dx of Leukemia, therefore your comparison that childhood cancer cure rates are 70% would NOT have applied to the cancers these three teens had.  I guess that makes this work of fiction closer to the truth than perhaps you thought?

For clarity: here are the reported most common forms of childhood cancer:

Leukemia (acute lymphoblastic leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia) – 90% cure rate

CNS, brain, and spinal cord tumors (including Medulloblastomas, Glioblastomas, DIPG) – 30% cure rate

Lymphomas, (including Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma)

Skin cancer and melanomas

Retinoblastoma – (oops this is Isaac’s form of cancer, now how did that make the list since it’s so rare!)

 Since it is still May and May is brain cancer awareness month, I’ll use pediatric brain cancer as my example. It is estimated that 4,500 Pediatric cases of brain cancer are diagnosed each year in the United States alone. Do we want the public to believe that 70% of them survive? Let’s try 30% – in a good year. This example shows exactly what the problem is. 70% is a “feel good” number, but it does not apply to all subsets of childhood cancers. 30% = not winning. That’s a variance of 40%.  Mr. Green hit the nail right on the head. There is a fault in our Stars. The fault is – misleading numbers, misleading cure rates, misleading drugs and drug protocols made for adults and titrated for children. I thought I was riled at your comment “…I think it’s perhaps not appropriate to focus exclusively on that” – meaning, you felt the movie focused on the negatives of childhood cancer, but in your world the outcomes are generally good. Come on out from under that rock! But then, I read the next sentence. “According to the American Cancer Society…” then, I threw up.

 The American Cancer Society. The same one that uses beautiful photos of children in their ad campaigns with a slogan of “more birthday’s, yet gives VERY LITTLE to children with cancer? Doctor, let’s review:

Funding for pediatric cancer clinical trials has gone DOWN every year since 2003.

In 2006, the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) federal budget was $4.6 billion.

 Of that, breast cancer received 12%, prostate cancer received 7%, and all 12 major groups of pediatric cancers combined received less than 3%. Childhood cancer research only gets 2.96% of the money raised by the American Cancer Society.  In dollar terms, NCI’s funding for pediatric clinical trials is $26.4 million while funding for AIDS research is $254 million, and breast cancer is $584 million. Pediatric cancer research is not only grossly under-funded by the government, it is also largely ignored by private drug companies. Pharmaceutical companies fund over 50 % of adult cancer research, but virtually nothing, nada – for kids. Pharmaceutical companies don’t commit resources to childhood cancer research because the adult cancer drug business is viewed as more profitable and less risky. Accordingly, there is an estimated $30 million a year gap in childhood cancer research funding. I have to ask, Dr. Hemenway, why would a Physician such as yourself cite the American Cancer Society as a source relating to an article on childhood cancer, when they could not give more than 2.96% care to this topic? I have read your curriculum vitae, and from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, to the University of Florida in Gainesville,  to Duke University, to Tulane in New Orleans, and finally to Loyola in Chicago. Yes, sir – I expected better sources. After all, it’s just one little online article that perhaps no one would see, and it’s not that big of a deal? Perhaps, someone in the department used your name because that pesky reporter called, AGAIN? Maybe? Clearly, your administrator would never do such a thing, nor would you sign a document you hadn’t read? (If they did, fire them).  Unfortunately, closer to the degrees of separation – I indeed have an extended family member studying pre-med/pediatrics at Loyola. So, what is my problem? Please do not impress on our youngest/newest Physicians-in-training these misleading facts and information such as the above. My unborn grandchildren are counting on these doctors to be able to appropriately identify & diagnose these “exceedingly rare” forms of childhood cancer. That’s my problem.

  For continuity purposes, you state that it is highly unlikely that the three characters would meet each other in a support group. First, because their types of cancers are exceedingly rare, and second – for teens to have them and all meet in a group would be like “lightning hitting three times”. SOMEONE CALL JIM CANTORE – lightning is striking more than three times in the same place – in my little community. Say, what? Yikes! True: Taylor Filorimo knows JoJo Siebert and Clinton Milliken. But that can’t be. Tay’s dx – Renal Cell Carcinoma (you know, “rare” and most commonly dx’s in 50+ year old adults); Clinton’s dx: Medulloblastoma (again “rare” and no where near a 70% cure rate) – and JoJo – Orbital Rhabdomyosarcoma (woah – must be rare!). Correction: these children once knew each other. Both Taylor and Clinton have passed away. JoJo is in remission and we pray, remains cancer free. This brings our survival rate to 33% of this subset of three. Lightning struck and the survival rate was no where near 70%!

    

  This article continues to give (me a near TIA). You are quoted as saying “Children are more emotionally resilient than the movie portrays,..My experience is that when kids are confronted with serious illnesses like this, they rise to the occasion and put the “Why Me? behind them and get on with getting better.” Phew. I can agree with you on this – children are indeed, resilient. They live in a world where all they know is to trust the adults around them. Without these adults, they have no voice. That’s where we, as American adults collectively, fail them.   Children are used to receiving instruction. So when Mom or Dad says they are going to the hospital to have their head bolted to a table, they’ll do it. They’ll giggle and laugh and right up until the very end, be ever hopeful. You see, their lives have not, until now, been tarnished by the unfairness of the world. Until now, their needs have been met. They believe like children, they innocently trust. I wonder if you’ve ever been intimately involved with a pediatric cancer patient? I don’t mean as in reviewing their chart, or a 10-15 minute bed-side encounter. More like, holding their puke buckets, accessing their ports in the middle of the night to hang their meds at home, on no sleep for the 17th month straight? Maybe, you were spending the day just playing with a just-turned-seven-year-old’s toddler brother, just dancing to the music in the car as you were driving and the little Ninja warrior sitting next to you seized and had a stroke that would, 5 days later, take his life. You see, in our world, outside of Leukemia research – this is not rare. It is not 70% successful. It’s more like that of Hazel, Augustus and Isaac, except some of these kids are younger.

  Dr. Hemenway, in no way should you take my letter as an insult toward your efforts in the research of Leukemia or any Hematology research. I have a little guy in my life, Keeton – that I adore and who’s diagnosis is designer genes and Leukemia. He is doing well! But, if we’re going to act as consummate professionals, we would mention that the very gene mutations that lend toward DS – make them more likely to get Leukemia, but also – gives them a clear advantage to beat their cancer. Amazing! But not really an attribute of our diligence towards the cure rate of childhood cancer. I would applaud and support any efforts to improving ANY cure rate for ANY childhood cancer subset. I do not support an esteemed professional such as yourself by making statements that strokes parents and/or the general population into believing that childhood cancer isn’t all that bad. I know it makes everyone feel better. The childhood cancer world does not need empathy. They need ACTION. Childhood Cancer isn’t all that bad, it’s much much worse. (We didn’t even touch on the lasting implications, emotional cost, divorce rates of cancer parents, financial out-of-pocket costs to families that are most often led to financial ruin, etc.). I am also very certain, that before commenting above, you did your research and you knew that John Green wrote this amazing piece of fiction based on inspiration of his friend, Esther Earl. Esther did have metastasized thyroid cancer and died from it (what, lightning struck in her town too?). It is NOT uncommon for children/teens to die from cancer, from the treatments of cancer, or from the long-term side effects following cancer treatment. I wish the general population of the world would be a lot more panicked rather than leave a childhood cancer encounter with a whimsical sing-songy heart  because someone painted a picture of happy, smiling bald-headed children who live in a fairy tale world of 70% cure rates. Although they are amazingly cute, this is not their reality.

(To learn more about Esther Earl’s foundation click here).

 You see, Doctor, There is a fault in our Stars. It is us.

In closing, I am THRILLED that the movie is coming out. You’re right, it’s not 100% accurate as it is a work of fiction. The real truth is far too hard for most to handle. Why does this make me jump for joy? Because in store fronts of every mall around the world – The Fault in our Stars ad displays are up. Childhood Cancer is getting attention. It’s easy for the world to turn away when they are not aware. Now, they are. No excuses.

Respectfully,

Lori Woodard-Hoyt

Murfreesboro, TN

Link to original article: here

Have no fear. When adult “talk is bullshit”, a little child will lead us.

To see the message from the amazing Gabriella and the Truth 365 click here. Do not miss footage starting at second 57. What did it take for the President of the United States to listen? A 10-year old.

Visit Gabriella’s foundation by clicking here.

There are so many amazing foundations. If you take nothing away from this other than this pearl – KNOW where your money/donations go. Many of them are small grass roots foundations just trying to find the funds to get kids in their outreach treatment, expenses, and a little bit of joy. I apologize in advance if I leave someone out, but here is a list of non-profits that my personal funds support.

Clinton’s Club – http://www.clintonsclub.org

Liv 4 Tay Foundation – http://www.live4tay.net

Peach’s Neet Feet – http://www.peachsneetfeet.com

Jessie Rees Foundation – http://www.joyjars.negu.org

Ronald McDonald House – Nashville – www.rmhcnashville.com

Team JoJo – www.teamjojo.com

Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation – www.alexslemonade.org

Disclaimer: the views above are expressly mine. John Green, nor any foundation or organization above have endorsed, nor reviewed my personal opinions. To read more about my personal opinions, search this blog site for Clinton Milliken, Equality, 46/7 or childhood cancer. There are a few.