2.4 Procedures
Participants in the case group were recruited during their routine
outpatient clinic visits. Clinical collaborators from CHOA identified
eligible patients and asked them whether they were willing to discuss
the study with our research team. After they agreed, one trained
research staff described the study, consented parents, and assented
age-eligible patients. Questionnaires were distributed to the children
to complete during clinic visits, and parents were instructed on the
stool specimen collection at home. The electronic medical records of the
pediatric patients with solid tumor were used to collect the demographic
information, health history, cancer diagnosis and treatment-related
information. For the control group, all the procedures were the same,
excluding the use of the electronic medical records.