Questions About Cancer

Cancer occurs when a particular type of cells lost normal control mechanisms and starts to grow in a way that the body can not regulate.

While different types of cancers have signs, symptoms, treatments and different prognoses depending on the type of cells involved and the degree of cell growth, childhood cancer is usually easier to control if caught in time and how adults younger the child, the more likely to survive. A baby may have a better expectation of life than a boy of 10 years and that such a young age many of their cells are to be formed and to remove malignant cells from your body we will ensure a full survival.

While the treatments are very cruel and painful and the physical and psychological sequelae are difficult to overcome, now is not the same cancer 20 years ago. People tend to assume that cancer is synonymous with certain death, but with proper diagnosis and following the protocol established for this type of cancer, can be overcome and even have a normal life. At first deal will be difficult years, with many twists and turns, with fear of recurrence of the disease, but you can.

In all types of cancer, cancer cells, grow uncontrollably, become abnormal sizes and morphologies (tumors), ignore their usual boundaries inside the body, destroy neighboring cells and, eventually, they may end up spreading to other organs and tissue (metastasis). As the cancer spreads, it consumes more and more of the nutrients the body needs to function. Cancer patient energy consumption, destroys organs and bones, and weakens their defenses against other diseases.
The most common cancers in children are leukemia, lymphoma and brain cancer. After ten years, there is also an increased incidence of osteosarcoma (bone cancer) and infants can be given neuroblastomas staying in neck or kidneys. Each type of cancer affecting different parts of the body, and its treatment and cure rates are also different.
The factors that trigger cancer in children rarely coincide with those that can be triggered in adults, such as smoking or exposure to environmental toxins. In most cases, childhood cancers develop due to inherited mutations in the genes of cells in the growth process and this error occurs randomly or unpredictably, currently there is no way to prevent them.
It is possible that your child’s doctor detected some early symptoms of cancer in a periodic review. However, many symptoms such as fever, swollen lymph nodes, frequent infections, anemia, or bruises are also typical of other infections or conditions other than cancer, but remember to check right away if your baby has any of these symptoms or a lump or hardness atypical stay in his little body, especially in the abdominal or head and neck.

After receiving the diagnosis of cancer, it is important to seek help for your child in a medical center specializing in pediatric oncology and psychological support for children and families by specialist familiar with the subject.

The treatment of cancer in children includes chemotherapy is the use of drugs to kill cancer cells, radiation therapy is the use of radiation to kill cancer cells and surgery to remove cancer cells or tumors. The treatment program required in each case will depend on the type of cancer and its aggressiveness, how widespread it is and the child’s age. This is called protocol.

In children with leukemia or lymphoma, surgery generally play a minor role. This is because leukemia and lymphoma are cancers that affect the circulatory and lymphatic systems, which are widely distributed throughout the body, making it difficult to treat locally removing a specific area. However, in osteosarcoma, brain tumors, neuroblastomas and other tumors affecting isolated small parts of the body anatomy and that have not metastasized to other parts of the body, surgery is often an effective weapon to fight cancer, combined with chemotherapy and / or radiotherapy.
Children with certain types of cancers may be candidates to undergo a bone marrow transplant. Bone marrow is a spongy tissue on the inside of certain bones of the body and performs the function of producing blood cells. If a child has a type of cancer that affects the function of blood cells, bone marrow transplant (in conjunction with chemotherapy to kill cancer cells) can enhance growth of healthy new cells. Marrow transplantation is also sometimes used to treat cancers in which no operation is committed blood cells, because it helps physicians to use higher doses of chemotherapy that would have tolerated the patient if he had not been made transplantation.