About Cancer
What is Cancer?
Cancer is a disease of the cells. It occurs when a single cell divides (makes a copy of itself) but ’goes wrong’ and produces an abnormal cell. If the abnormal cell continues to divide and does not die, it has become a cancer cell. These cells grow out of control, develop abnormal sizes and shapes, ignore their typical boundaries inside the body, destroy their neighbor cells, and can ultimately spread (or metastasize) to other organs and tissues.
A cancer cell will tend to divide quickly and can, but does not always, spread to other parts of the body. As cancer cells grow, they demand more and more of the body’s nutrition. Cancer takes a child’s strength, destroys organs and bones, and weakens the body’s defenses against other illnesses.
There are two main types of cancer:
Solid cancers/tumours – when an abnormal cell divides rapidly and a lump forms.
Leukaemias and lymphomas – when the blood cells divide and multiply abnormally.
Typically, the factors that trigger cancer in children are usually not the same factors that may cause cancer in adults, such as smoking or exposure to environmental toxins. Rarely, there may be an increased risk of childhood cancer in kids who have a genetic condition, such as Down syndrome. Those who have had chemotherapy or radiation treatment for a prior cancer episode may also have an increased risk of cancer. In almost all cases, however, childhood cancers arise from noninherited mutations (or changes) in the genes of growing cells. Because these errors occur randomly and unpredictably, currently there is no effective way to prevent them.
Sometimes, a doctor may be able to spot early symptoms of cancer at regular checkups. However, some of these symptoms (such as fever, swollen glands, frequent infections,anemia, or bruises) are also associated with other infections or conditions that are not cancer. Because of this, it is not uncommon for both doctors and parents to suspect other childhood illnesses when cancer symptoms first appear.
Once cancer has been diagnosed, it is important for parents to seek help for their child at a medical center that specializes in pediatric oncology (treatment for childhood cancer).
The Facts
- Only around 1 in 200 (0.5 per cent) of all cancers occur in children aged under 15 years.
- In 2000, there were around 1,400 new cases diagnosed in Great Britain.
- In 2000, cancer accounted for around 20 per cent of all deaths in children aged 1 to 14 years.
About one third of all childhood cancers are leukaemias. - About 80 per cent of all leukaemias are acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).
- Around a quarter of all childhood cancers are brain and spinal tumours; while 15 per cent of cases are embryonal tumours (neuroblastoma, retinoblastoma, Wilms’ tumour and hepatoblastoma).
- Lymphomas account for just under 10% of all childhood cancers.
- Childhood cancer is about one fifth more common among boys than girls.
- Children of Asian ethnic origin in Britain have consistently been found to have a higher incidence of lymphomas, particularly in early childhood. Some studies have also found a raised incidence of leukaemia, liver tumours and germ-cell tumours, but a lower incidence of Wilms’ tumour and rhabdomyosarcoma.
- In the mid-1990s, nearly 75 per cent of children with cancer survived at least five years after diagnosis (known as five-year survival).
- For the main type of childhood leukaemia, five-year survival was above 80 per cent, and exceeded 50 per cent for every main type of childhood cancer.
- The number of adult survivors of childhood cancer has greatly increased, from around 1,400 in 1971 to almost 15,000 in 2000.
- In 1971, only around 100 adult survivors were aged over 30 years compared with 7,000 (over 45 per cent) in 2000.