Cure 4 The Kids Foundation (C4K) is Southern Nevada’s only outpatient clinic for kids battling cancer and rare diseases. Its comprehensive care model provides treatment and services to kids and their families offering help in a number of important areas including physical therapy, financial assistance, social services, behavioral health services and more.
C4K’s Long-Term Follow-Up (LTFU) Clinic is designed for our childhood cancer survivors where they can get the follow-up care they need and monitor for any late effects from the treatments they received throughout their cancer journey.
Patients are eligible to be seen in C4K’s LTFU Clinic as long as they are at least two years out of their cancer treatment. Typically, these patients come in for an annual visit and are seen by our multidisciplinary team to assess their current health struggles or to support in the navigation of anticipated obstacles in the future.
“I’m honored to be the lead physician overseeing C4K’s Long-Term Follow-Up Clinic” said Dr. Waseem Alhushki. MD. “This important appointment is critical in monitoring the ongoing health of our kids. We are thrilled when we can officially refer to them as cancer survivors, but we have to always remember even when they are in remission, they need a very specific set of services and monitoring. The care is very tailored and specifically designed for each individual person as each patient usually has their individual chronic care plan already in place.”
Dr. Danielle Bello, Ph.D., ABPP-CN is C4K’s director of Behavioral Health & Long-Term Follow-Up Clinic. She says each patient goes through a review regimen to make sure there are appropriate scans and follow-ups that need to be performed.
“Each patient is seen by C4K’s oncologist who is able to review any lab work and reviewing all medical records hoping to improve our patient’s medical health journey,” said Bello. “Each patient is also seen by our social worker to assess for any needs and any resources that the patient may be eligible for or may need.”
Patients also are seen by an education specialist from our on-site Learning Center. Our team helps to determine school status and any needs not being met in their current learning environment. Patients also are seen by our clinical neuropsychologist to assess their emotional functioning as well as their critical thinking skills. Our goal is to determine if there are any needs or follow-ups that need to be scheduled.
Nationally, there are approximately 500,000 childhood cancer survivors in the United States. According to recent statistics, over 85% of children with childhood cancer treated at Cure 4 The Kids Foundation will survive. The rate of survival of childhood cancer is exponential to the statistics reported only 20 years ago. The number of childhood cancer survivors will continue to grow for years to come. C4K expects the need to expand their Long-Term Follow-Up Clinic patient availabilities in the future.
Prior to being seen at C4K’s LTFU Clinic, the nurse coordinator will collect all the information about one’s treatment history and form a summary as well as create follow-up guidelines. These are based on the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) recommendations. The C4K’s LTFU team will then meet and discuss each patient being seen that day, what happened from the prior visit, and what needs to happen moving forward. The team will review any other health information or scans that may be available. Each member of the multidisciplinary team participates in the conversation for each patient and their individual set of circumstances. This annual appointment is very efficient for the patient as they are seen by a variety of specialists in a single visit.
During a child’s first visit, they receive a binder that contains all of their health history and treatment thus far. This binder serves as a reference to carry with them throughout the rest of their life. It holds all of the patient’s health history, treatments, side effects, lasting effects, etc. The benefit is that if a patient moves out of state, they have this binder of knowledge that they can then provide to their primary care.
One of the great things about the C4K Long-Term Follow-Up Clinic is that any person can be seen by the C4K team and no one will be turned away. Cure 4 The Kids focuses on children but in the program, even those who did not receive care at C4K will get the after-care they deserve.
“Our clinic was originally funded by a family to a cancer survivor who saw their child struggle with after-effects,” said Alhushski. “In order to continue to make a positive impact on other patients and our community, we still need help. We continue to collaborate with community partners to help us in adding more critical testing and services.”
You can help Cure 4 The Kids Foundation in its battle against childhood cancer and supporting our Long-Term Follow-Up Clinic today! You can make a donation at https://cure4thekids.org/donate/. To learn more about our organization, visit https://Cure4TheKids.org .
Members of the editorial and news staff of the Las Vegas Review-Journal were not involved in the creation of this content.