ACE: A Message from the Medical Director
Welcome to the After the Cancer Experience (ACE) Program website! At Children's Medical Center, we believe that cancer survivors require special care and resources that are customized for their unique medical and psychological needs. At present, one in every 640 young adults aged 20 – 39 years old is a cancer survivor, which means that there are now 270,000 childhood cancer survivors in the United States. Over the past two decades, we have learned that cancer survivors have many unique medical issues and may be at risk of many severe side effects as a result of their cancer or its therapy. The ACE Program was created to address these medical issues and to be on the forefront of medical research for childhood cancer survivorship.
The goal of the ACE Program website is to serve as a resource for survivors of childhood cancer survivors or other diseases requiring chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Specifically, the ACE Program website was created to be a source of information regarding the medical, educational, and social issues important to childhood cancer survivors. The website strives to provide accurate, current and relevant information to childhood cancer survivors and their families. For example, the website will post information regarding new information important to cancer survivors, research studies, scholarship information and other opportunities. We will be updating the website on a regular basis and welcome your feedback, and so we encourage you to bookmark this website and check it on a frequent basis.
About the ACE Program
The ACE Program at Children's Medical Center and UT Southwestern Medical Center was established in 1989 and is the first and largest childhood cancer survivors program in North Texas. The ACE Program evaluates and monitors childhood cancer survivors from ages 3 – 61 years old. Objectives of the ACE program include patient and physician education, patient care, and clinical research in the late effects of cancer survivors. The ACE Program is a member of the Childhood Cancer Survivors Study (CCSS), the leading consortium in late effects research. Numerous studies from the CCSS have determined the frequency of late effects and identified risk factors for late effects in this childhood cancer survivors.
We hope that this website will serve to update you on the ACE Program and an important source of current information regarding the medical, educational, and social issues for childhood cancer survivors. We plan to update the website often and encourage you to check back soon for new information.
Daniel C. Bowers, M.D.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Medical Director, ACE Program
Children's Medical Center
