JENNY COSTE
This is the case of Jenny Coste, 10 years old and was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. She felt a sudden pain in her legs, was feeling sick and has shortness of breath. She undergoes intensive chemotherapy and have been in and out of the hospital for 18 months. She had a remission for a fleeting period, but unfortunately a relapse occurred. Her health being swiftly dropped despite assertive effort of treatment until her family decided to put her in palliative care.
Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia or ALL is one most common blood cancer in children less than 15-year-old of age. Jenny’s diagnosis is acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Ordinarily, blood cells are emerging from an immature cell or stem cell which can give rise to several different cell types. First phase of hematopoiesis or formation of blood
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Approximately, 80% of children achieved complete remission. The availability of drug modification has been made apart from induction regimens of vincristine, anthracycline and glucocorticoid (Rabin & Poplack 2011). The use of dexamethasone versus prednisone varies among groups of patients because each of these glucocorticoids has pros and cons. Adams et al. (2011) made an evaluation tool called QuEST Tool to determine the quality of life in patients receiving steroids particularly in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The focus of the study involves the determination of adverse effects of corticosteroids in long term or high dose therapy apart from physical side effects such as mood, behavior, cognition, body appearance and image as well as family relationships. This information can help in future drug development towards negative side effects of corticosteroids. The use of Prednisone instead of Dexamethasone in Jenny’s case is probably because of her age and health condition. Dexamethasone is believed to