Inflammatory Myofibroblastic Tumor of the Esophagus and Stomach Successfully Treated With ALK Inhibitor in a Pediatric Patient: A Case Report and Concise Review of Literature.

An inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT) is a rare mesenchymal neoplasm of borderline malignant potential. Nearly half of all IMTs have rearrangement of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) locus on chromosome 2p23 which can be treated with targeted therapy. Herein, we describe an unusual presentation of IMT involving an anatomical region rarely implicated in this disease process.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Timing of Childhood Cancer Diagnoses.

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the health care system in unprecedented ways. We reviewed the registry of new cancer patients who presented to the Children's of Mississippi Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders and showed the average number of new pediatric cancer diagnoses dropped during the initial COVID-19 months and rose significantly in June 2020. We must encourage families to seek health care when needed and keep scheduled appointments for routine vaccinations and health maintenance as we know the long-term sequela of delaying health maintenance far outweighs risks at present.

Intravenous pentamidine is safe and effective as primary pneumocystis pneumonia prophylaxis in children and adolescents undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Background: Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) is a potentially life-threatening but preventable infection that may occur after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Intravenous pentamidine has been used in the prevention of PCP in the post-transplant period, although there are few trials published in the literature evaluating its safety and efficacy.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of children who underwent HSCT from January 1, 2005, to October 1, 2011, who received intravenous pentamidine as first-line PCP prophylaxis initiated at admission.

The diagnostic utility of routine chest radiography in the evaluation of the initial fever in patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell.

Background: A routine chest radiograph is often performed to evaluate initial fever in patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) given the signs and symptoms of infectious pulmonary pathology may be subtle or absent. Studies in patients receiving conventional chemotherapy have shown that chest radiographs do not appear to be helpful in the evaluation of asymptomatic patients with febrile neutropenia. We performed a retrospective review of pediatric stem cell transplant recipients to determine if chest radiographs are useful in the evaluation of initial fever.