Each year, more than 15,000 kids and young adults are diagnosed with cancer—that’s about 42 per day. Though the 5-year-survival rate for childhood cancers has reached 80 percent, nearly 2,000 kids under age 19 die each year, making cancer the leading killer of children by disease. And that’s just in the United States. In 2016, over 300,000 kids and young adults were diagnosed worldwide.
Childhood cancer is still a big problem because:
- Children’s cancer can’t be treated exactly like adult cancers (where most of federal research funding goes.) Current treatments are toxic, affect a child’s development and can be decades old. To treat childhood cancer in the best way possible, we need to create specialized treatments just for kids.
- The causes of childhood cancer are largely unknown. We need to study what causes childhood cancer to understand what treatments work best.
- Many childhood cancer survivors in the U.S. suffer from lifelong damage to their organs, mental health and more. We need to understand how treatments affect kids long-term so we can prevent late effects. (Childcancer dot org)
Types of Childhood cancers
- Leukemia
- Brain and spinal cord tumors
- Neuroblastoma
- Wilms tumor
- Lymphoma (including both
Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin)
- Rhabdomyosarcoma
- Retinoblastoma
- Bone cancer (including osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma)
Symptoms
Continued, unexplained weight loss
Headaches, often with early morning vomiting
Increased swelling or persistent pain in the bones, joints, back, or legs
Lumpor mass, especially in the abdomen, neck, chest, pelvis, or armpits
Development of excessive bruising, bleeding, or rash
Constant, frequent, or persistent infections
Awhitish color behind the pupil
Nausea that persists or vomiting without nausea
Constant tiredness or noticeable paleness
Eye or vision changes that occur suddenly and persist
Recurring or persistent fevers of unknown origin
Treatment
Treatment for childhood cancer is based mainly on the type and stage (extent) of the cancer. The main types of treatment used for childhood cancer are:
- Surgery
- Radiation therapy
- Chemotherapy
Some types of childhood cancers might be treated with high-dose chemotherapy followed by a stem cell transplant. Newer types of treatment, such as targeted therapy drugs and immunotherapy, have also shown promise in treating some childhood cancers. Often more than one type of treatment is used.
There are exceptions, but childhood cancers usually respond well to chemotherapy because they tend to be cancers that grow fast. (Most forms of chemotherapy affect cells that are growing quickly.) Children’s bodies are also generally better able to recover from higher doses of chemotherapy than are adults’ bodies. Using more intensive treatments gives doctors a better chance of treating the cancer effectively, but it can also lead to more short- and long-term side effects. Unlike chemotherapy, radiation can often cause more serious side effects in children (especially very young children) than in adults, so its use sometimes needs to be limited. Doctors do their best to balance the need for intensive treatment with the desire to limit side effects as much as possible.
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References by Childcancer.org, Pediatric Oncology Resource Center, American Cancer Society
