Cancer comes in many forms. Have you ever heard of Medullablastoma? If a child is diagnosed with this type of tumor, is there a way to predict how the kid will do during surgery?

First of all, medullablastoma is a type of brain cancer, and its tumors are located in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls balance. One of the worst things about them, however, is that they are usually located deep within the brain.

15 to 20 percent of kids diagnosed with cancer get this strain of the disease. In fact, more than 500 cases are diagnosed each year. Many of them end up at St. Jude.

What determines if a child will survive the surgery to remove these tumors? One physician from Boston Children's Hospital, Dr. Mark Kieran says, "The number one predictor is how experienced the neurosurgeon is in doing that operation on children." The size of the tumor isn't the determining factor.

The kids at St. Jude are fortunate, because many of the physicians there have come up with advanced techniques to treat this invasive disease. By the end of 2013, more than 700 strains of cancer, including medullablastoma, have been mapped out by researchers at St. Jude to discover how they work and to create new methods of treatment.

Won't you help continue this lifesaving research? Become a Partner In Hope today, and your contributions will be used to find the cures that save kids lives, not only at St. Jude, but around the world.

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