Dr Manish Singhal - The best Cancer Specialist in Delhi
Types Of Childhood Cancer, awareness is the only way to cure
Childhood is a treasure of purity which we rarely find in adults. Smiles of innocence, colors of imagination, the honesty of soul, and big stocks of positivity. But, how does it feel when these little imitations of God get trapped in the mouth of a monster like disease, Cancer?
Yes! Unquestionably it is very painful. If adults can’t resist this hell like experience then how can these little delicate flowers blossom with this life-threatening disease?
Certainly, awareness is the only strongest weapon to fight with childhood cancer, so that we can shield our kids from such a dangerous ailment.
Adults usually get cancer of lungs, colon, breast, skin or prostate but when it comes to childhood cancer, it is normally in the nervous system or white blood cells, in the lymphatic system, in the brain, bones, kidneys or muscles.
Although most of the cancers can be cured if detected on time but some cancer can really prove a threat to life. Here is a brief account about various types of cancers which may occur in children.
It is among the most common types of childhood cancer which occur in the bone marrow and blood.
The bone marrow makes stem cells which turn into blood cells over a period of time. In ALL cancer, numerous stem cells transform into immature blood cells which are known as lymphoblasts. When these lymphoblasts do not develop into normal blood cells (lymphocytes), it causes cancer. Lymphocytes help to fight infection by attacking harmful bacteria and germs.
These tumours are basically the cancers of brain and brain stem. These are the most common solid tumours with highest mortality rates in childhood cancers. Its various types include - germ cell tumours, PNET, medulloblastoma, low-grade and high-grade gliomas, astrocytoma , ependymoma and more.
It’s a cancer of "baby" cells or retinoblasts in the retina, which is responsible for vision. It mostly happens in newly born to 3 yrs. age children. Some children have a genetic form of this disease which makes every cell in the retina prone to tumour formation. In such cases, usually, both the eyes get affected by the disease. While in other non-genetic type cases, it affects only one eye. Removal of the eye is the solution in most of the cases, although further efforts are going on with a focus on preserving vision.
It is a less common form of a bone tumour which affects the children of 5 years age and older. Still, it can be dangerous as these tumours develop in the cavity of the bone.
It is the very common form of kidney tumour but the good part of this disease is, it is not much dangerous and in most cases, it can be cured with basic treatment. Most of the cases have a "favorable histology" which means the disease has a good cure rate with less treatment. And the cases with severe disease have anaplastic Wilms tumour, which is quite resistant to treatment.
It’s a cancer of sympathetic nervous system, which basically works as a message or communication network between the brain and other body parts. These tumours can grow in the pelvis, neck or abdomen. It’s very common in infants and can even form before birth. The average age for diagnosis of this disease is 2, and it is quite rare in children over 10.
It is a rarer but difficult to cure cancer. In leukemia , the bone marrow produces a big number of abnormal blood cells and flood the lymph system and bloodstream which may even invade vital organs. Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most occurring cancer of myeloid cells. While others include - acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML), myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML).
Refer a case study - Cancer Sees No Age
