What is pediatric cancer?
Cancer in children or pediatric cancer is quite different from cancers in adults. The area of pediatric oncology is focused on the cancer care and treatment of children. The thought of childhood cancers is daunting, however the silver lining behind this is that most of the childhood cancers are effectively treatable. Cancer is a disease which can affect anyone at any time in any organ or body part. All it takes is for one single cancer cell to grow exponentially due to any genetic changes. In most of the scenarios, these cancer cells grow and form a mass or tumor. Early diagnosis and treatment in very essential in the case of cancer. However when it comes to pediatric cancers, the cause is not quite evident as it is in adult cancers. It is a constant field of research and study to find the cause of childhood cancers, environmental or lifestyle changes play a rather insignificant role in pediatric cancers.
Treatment of Pediatric Cancer
The childhood cancer treatment depends on the type of cancer and its stage, plan of action or treatment can include:
- Chemotherapy
- Surgery.
- Radiation Therapy.
- Stem cell Transplantation.
- Immunotherapy: a rather recent advancement in the field of cancer treatment which focuses on strengthening one’s own immune system to fight off cancer cells. Various types of immunotherapy include monoclonal antibodies, oncolytic virus therapy, cancer vaccines, chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (CAR T therapy), and bispecific T-cell engagers.
Are there any risk factors for developing pediatric cancer?
In adults, certain lifestyle and environmental factors can play a role in the occurrence of cancer such as smoking, drinking alcohol, eating fat filled diet and lack of exercise. However these do not come to play when it comes to childhood cancer since most of these aspects take a lot of time to affect the body. Radiation can play a role in this. however it is important for parents to accept the fact that parents in any case cannot do anything to ensure their child does not get affected by cancer.
What are the common types of pediatric cancer?
Few of the cancers which are more common in children compared to adults:
- 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).
What are the treatments of Pediatric Cancer?
Early detection is key for right treatment and quicker diagnosis and also to avoid any further delays in the care. The treatment plan could include chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery.
How to ensure early diagnosis?
Awareness in the family is the first step followed by clinical evaluation, appropriate testing and staging and immediate access to proper treatment.