How your donation transforms healthcare and children’s lives around the globe

by Cheryl Yasis, Pine Tree Apple Classic Fund Board Director

When Dr. Lynn Tanner, one of the physical rehabilitation researchers that PTACF supports, peers into her clinic waiting room at Children’s Minnesota, she sees few children in wagons or wheelchairs. As the mother of a pediatric cancer survivor treated at Children’s, I’ve spent a good amount of time in that same waiting room with my son and can verify that I’ve rarely seen kids in wagons or wheelchairs at clinic. I didn’t realize how unique this is until I learned that pediatric cancer clinics across the nation frequently have waiting rooms filled with kids with both. Are the kids at our local pediatric hospital simply lucky or is there something different about the services kids receive at Children’s Minnesota?

Over the years, PTACF has helped fund over 25 research papers and projects focused on understanding and improving physical movement in children undergoing treatment for cancer. As a result, Children’s Minnesota is well known for their physical rehabilitation research and programs nationally. While this knowledge is published and shared with the global medical community, simply publishing research findings does not typically result in dramatic change to clinical practice. Clinicians must also receive training and education on how to incorporate the knowledge into their everyday workflows.

The CREATE™ Childhood Cancer Rehabilitation Program was born at Children’s Minnesota in 2021 out of the need to translate the evidence produced from the scientific research funded by PTACF and other organizations into practical training and tools that result in outcomes like the ability for kids with cancer to walk into a clinic, run with friends at recess, or play on the high school hockey team. This is no small feat. It requires special equipment designed for children and collaborative efforts among researchers, oncologists, physical therapists, scheduling, and patient families. In short, it requires an overall change in how hospitals approach patient care.

With rehabilitation rates among children with cancer as low as 1-2%, CREATE provides clinicians with desperately needed skills required to “create” and sustain the change needed for a successful cancer rehabilitation program. Over 200 professionals from 30 states and seven countries have participated in CREATE since its inception, including clinicians from renown pediatric cancer hospitals in the United States. The result is a cadre of clinicians reimagining how they care for kids and recognition of the importance of physical therapy in the overall quality of life for our youngest patients. 

Dr. Tanner’s most recent PTACF-funded research study found that children receiving physical therapy during cancer treatment may reduce the severity of neuropathy, a condition causing pain and difficulty with coordination and balance–something essential for walking and a common cause of children requiring the use of a wheelchair. The study was small and requires additional research that Dr. Tanner is enthusiastic to take on.

“We can do a better job addressing the challenges kids face during treatment and into survivorship if we have support for more research and how physical therapy improves the overall quality of life for young cancer patients over the long term.”, says Dr. Tanner.

There is still a lot to understand but your donation can help support research and clinician training that fuels the transformative impact of care for pediatric cancer patients in Minnesota and around the world. Funding for these efforts comes from generous donors like you. You can make a one-time, monthly, quarterly, or annual donation. And, any amount helps. Let’s raise more in ’24!