TYPES OF CHILDHOOD CANCER- (I)
- Leukemias- cancer of the tissues of the body that make the blood cells and the bone marrow. When leukemia strikes, the body makes an abundance of abnormal white cells that do not perform their proper functions. They invade the marrow and crowd out the normal healthy blood cells, making the patient susceptible to infection and bruising.
- Lymphomas- cancer which arises in the lymph system, the body’s circulatory network for filtering out impurities. It can arise in the tonsils, thymus, bone, small intestine, spleen, or in lymph glands anywhere in the body. The disease can spread to the central nervous system and the bone marrow.
TYPES OF CHILDHOOD CANCER- (II)
- Brain Tumors-Tumors of the brain and spinal cord are the most common types of solid tumors in children. Some tumors are benign, and some children can be cured by surgery.There has been less dramatic progress in treating brain cancer tumors than most other childhood Twenty percent of all primary brain tumors arise in children younger than age 15, somewhat more malignancies because they are hard to diagnose and treat in boys than girls. There is a peak in incidence between the ages of 5 and 10.
- Bone Cancers-The most common bone cancer is osteogenic sarcoma. Bone cancer in children occurs most often during adolescence, 85% of them have tumors on their legs or arms, half of them around the knee.
- Neuroblastoma- Found only in children, neuroblastoma arises in the adrenal glands, located in the abdominal area. It attacks very young children. One-fourth of those affected show initial symptoms during the first year of life. Neuroblastoma spreads quickly, and often is discovered only after the disease is widespread. Early stages are curable by surgery alone.
TYPES OF CHILDHOOD CANCER- (III)
- Wilms’ Tumor- This rapidly-developing tumor of the kidney most often appears in children, usually between the ages of two and four, and is very different from adult kidney cancers. The disease often metastasizes to the lungs, and in the past, the mortality from this cancer was extremely high. However, newer therapies have been very effective in controlling it.
- Retinoblastoma- a malignant eye tumor which occurs in young children and shows a hereditary pattern -- accounts for only 2% of the childhood cancer cases. However, it received a great deal of attention when it was the first cancer for which researchers were able to identify the responsible gene.
- Rhabdomyosarcoma- The most common soft tissue sarcoma in children, this extremely malignant neoplasm originates in skeletal muscle. Although it can occur in any muscle tissue, it is generally found in the head and neck area (including the eye socket), the genito-urinary tract, or in the extremities. Although rhabdomyosarcoma tends to grow and spread very rapidly, fortunately its symptoms are quite obvious compared to other forms of childhood cancer.