Peter E. Newburger, M.D.
Editor-in-Chief
Pediatric Blood and Cancer
Dear Dr. Newburger,
I would like to submit the manuscript entitled “Drivers of Differential Time to Diagnosis in Pediatric ALL tied to Race and Ethnicity” by Drs. Davitt, Gennarini, Loeb, and Hosgood to be considered for publication as a Regular Article in Pediatric Blood and Cancer. We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis of 274 pediatric-aged patients cared for within the Montefiore Health System to determine whether there were factors associated with time from symptom onset to diagnosis and observed that that insurance status and language preference may impact the time to diagnosis of pediatric ALL, thereby affecting a patient’s long term health. We believe these findings will be of interest to the readers of your journal. We declare that this manuscript is original, has not been published before and is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere.
We know of no conflicts of interest associated with this publication. This work was supported in part by NIH/National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) Einstein-Montefiore CTSA Grant Number UL1TR001073 as well as the Cancer Center Support Grant Number 2P30CA013330 and the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Fellow Research Award but we do not believe that this funding influenced its outcome. As Corresponding Author, I confirm that all named authors have contributed significantly and approved the submission of this manuscript. We believe the following individuals would be excellent choices as potential reviewers of this manuscript: Dr. Peter Cole, Dr. Lisa Wray, and Dr. Leslie Kersun, all of whom represent experts in the field of pediatric leukemia and have no conflicts of interest.
Dr. Newburger, thank you for your consideration of this manuscript. We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Dr. Meghan Davitt
Address: 3411 Wayne Ave, 9th floor, Bronx, NY, 10467
Telephone: 718-741-2342; Fax: 718-920-6506
Email:medavitt@montefiore.org