Science Writers' Seminar on Childhood Cancers

Extraordinary progress has been made in treating childhood cancers. A child diagnosed with cancer in the 1970s had less than a 50 percent chance of surviving for 5 years; today, 5-year survival rates for all childhood cancers are approaching 80 percent. NCI is sponsoring a Science Writers' Seminar to highlight the latest scientific discoveries in children's cancer and treatment on April 26. Speakers will include Drs. Lee Helman and Alan Wayne of NCI; Dr. Donald Small of Johns Hopkins University; and Kathy Russell, acting executive director of the Children's Inn at NIH. An NCI patient will also speak on the experience of having cancer as a child. The seminar will take place from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the multipurpose room of the Children's Inn on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md. Journalists wishing to register for the press briefing should contact Dorie Hightower or Ann Benner in the NCI Press Office at (301) 496-6641 or at ncipressofficers@mail.nih.gov.