After a joyous Super Bowl Sunday spent with the whole family, Johnny Crisstopher, the 6-year-old son of magician Criss Angel, seems to be back in the hospital for another round of treatment.
The family had announced this past December that Johnny Crisstopher, who was first diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia before his second birthday, was no longer in remission.
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“You can always find the light in the darkest of places,” she wrote.
But first, there was fun. The family enjoyed together-time during the Super Bowl, just days before Angel kicks off a 13-city tour for “Criss Angel Raw: the MindFreak Unplugged.”
Keeping Up His Spirits
Angel and his wife have been working hard to keep their son's spirits up ever since the diagnosis, according to his Instagram page, taking him to Disney World and spending tons of time together.
And Johnny Crisstopher does seem to have an incredibly positive attitude, enjoying being with his family and playing games. One particularly funny prank he pulled on his dad was memorialized on Instagram:
‘We Have Great Faith’
Johnny Crisstopher is being treated at Summerlin Hospital Medical Center in Las Vegas, and the Cure 4 the Kids Foundation in Henderson Nev., according to a recent interview with Angel in Entertainment Tonight. "We have great faith and hope for his treatment at both Summerlin Hospital and Cure 4 the Kids Foundation with Dr. Alan Ikeda, who has been treating Johnny Crisstopher in Nevada,” he said.
Information about Childhood Cancer
Because of major treatment advances in recent decades, 84% of children with cancer now survive five years or more, according to the American Cancer Society. This is up from 58% from the mid-1970s.
When it comes to treatment for childhood cancers, doctors still rely on chemotherapy, "but there are also targeted treatments and different immunotherapies that have been studies in adults and have now moved into clinical trials for children and there has been a great deal of excitement in the community about that," Dr. Elizabeth Raetz, Director of pediatric hematology and oncology at Perlmutter Cancer Center, tells SurvivorNet.
About Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Leukemia is the most common type of childhood cancer. The most frequent type of childhood leukemia is acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Three out every four cases of childhood leukemia are diagnosed as acute.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a cancer that occurs when the bone marrow makes too much of a type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, according to the National Cancer Institute. However, it is the most common type of childhood cancer, and three out every four cases of childhood leukemia are diagnosed as acute.
Signs of childhood ALL include fever and bruising, and the disease can be detected using tests that examine the blood and bone marrow. Over time, there has been a lot of improvement in treatments for childhood leukemia.
There are several different approaches to treating the disease, and the treatment plan will depend on the type of ALL the child has. Chemotherapy, radiation, chemotherapy with a stem cell transplant, and targeted therapy are all considered standard treatment, according to the American Cancer Society.
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