Most children diagnosed today with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) will be cured. However, treatment entails risk of neurotoxicity, causing deficits in neurocognitive function that can persist in the years after treatment is completed. Many of the components of leukemia therapy can contribute to adverse neurologic sequelae, including…

The national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) monitors priority health risk behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death, disability, and social problems among youth and adults in the United States. The national YRBS is conducted every two years during the spring semester and provides data representative of 9th through 12th grade…

Previous research suggests that belief in the uncontrollability of a situation results in maladaptive attempts to control outcomes; perceptions of cancer's uncontrollability may result in negative attitudes toward the disease and toward patients. To test this theory 160 college students read and responded to a paragraph describing a disease…

A review of existing stress and coping models and an analysis of the distress caused by childhood cancer suggest that a broader conceptualization of coping that includes "pleasure management" is needed. Presently, successful coping is identified as the employment of strategies which allow the individual to adapt to stress. Traditional…

Compared parents (N=40) whose adult children died in traffic accidents to parents (N=24) whose adult children died of cancer. Cancer parents tended to experience loss less painfully than did accident parents. Differences between groups were explained by older age of children at death and less intense expression of grief. Circumstances of death…

Factors associated with quitting smoking were analyzed. Quitters were those who had stopped for at least one year. Quit rates were higher for males, those in higher age groups of both sexes, those of higher educational and occupational levels, Jews, and whites. (Author.VM)

Interviewed 32 married couples about their experiences and strategies for coping with their children's cancer. Most informants reported that family cohesion was strengthened by their experiences and that spouses were the most important source of support. (BH)

Evaluated the effects of increased methodological rigor on the validity of the Observation Scale of Behavioral Distress and on findings concerning whether children habituate to painful procedures. Data were scored with and without refinements. Results indicated that children do habituate but that refinements had little effect on validity. (BH)

New technologies have been developed to diagnose such disorders as cancer, heart disease, and defects of the newborn in presymptomatic stages. Several technologies, including amniocentesis, radioimmunoassay, enzyme immunoassay, multichannel analysis and others are discussed. Development of these technologies and issues related to their use are…

Extensive study affirms that vinyl chloride is a potent animal carcinogen. Epidemiological studies show elevated rates of human cancers in association with extended contact with the compound. (Author/RE)

Studied (N=120) terminally ill cancer patients over several months on quality of life variables, functional status and survival. Counseled patients changed significantly more than controls by three months. Overall, response to counseling was similar in young and old patients, with both improving. (Author/JAC)

Assessed the psychosocial adjustment of (N=107) parents whose children had cancer. Different patterns of association between 11 sources of social support and adjustment were found among groups of parents. Psychosocial adjustment of parents with a child in treatment was correlated more frequently with perceived social support. (Author)

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory scores yielded significant discriminations between cancer and noncancer groups. The group with cancer was significantly separated from the noncancer group on the basis of lower scores on Byrne's Repression-Sensitization scale (greater repression) and on the Depression scale of the MMPI (less…