Introduction

Childhood Cancer

Unlike adult cancer, childhood cancer is normally a result of DNA changes in cells that takes place early in life. Childhood cancer is also not strongly linked to environmental risk factors.

Childhood treatment has also been shown to respond very well to chemotherapy and their bodies tend to handle chemo treatments better than adults. Though their bodies tend to handle the treatment better, if the child survives, the child might have long term effects from the radiation.

Most children in the US are treated at a children's oncology group. These centers are associated with children's hospitals or universities. As childhood cancer has been more looked into in the past years, it is now more important than ever to have specialist looking into this area.

"What Are the Differences between Cancers in Adults and Children?" What Are the Differences between Cancers in Adults and Children? American Cancer Society, 2015. Web. 22 Jan. 2015.


Grid computing

            Grid computing is a computer system that uses volunteer computer devices to help support scientific causes. Volunteers from around the nation can use grid computing. Grid computing powers cutting edge research in healthcare, poverty, and sustainability. It is used because scientists do not have enough computers to power their research. Thus, volunteers can help by using their computer devices to contribute to the research. The use of multiple computers helps scientists compete a common goal. The data collected from each volunteer goes directly to the scientists. The scientists can then use this data to connect information together, analyze patterns, and come up with results.

                        To set up grid computing software, volunteers simply download the program on to their computers. Once downloaded, the program runs without affecting the volunteer’s daily computer activities. While contributing to the research, volunteers can stay engaged and up-to-date about the causes. Currently, over 600,000 volunteers have helped contribute to research and with this, scientists have made impacting results in just a few short years. For example, research in cancer treatment, HIV/AIDS, and solar energy have been improved with grid computing.

            Grid computing is basically when all the computer’s resources are shared with every other computer system. It uses processing power, memory, and data storage to perform a specific task. Multiple computers are used to perform one task creating a network. This network forms a supercomputer which uses the information collected from volunteer computer devices and delivers the information to scientists. Grid computing is thus, very efficient in that it uses multiple computers to be very cost effective, it does not require an enormous amount of computing power, and the resources of many computers are harnessed to reach a common goal.

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/grid-computing.htm; http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/definition/grid-computing

http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/about_us/viewGridComputingBasics.do