Source(s):
CCIA - Children's Cancer Institute Australia
News Medical
MedicineNet.com
National Cancer Institute (USA)
The Children's Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation
Fast Facts about Childhood Cancer
- According to recent WHO estimates, cancer claims the lives of around 100,000 children younger than 15 years every year worldwide;
- Every year more than 600 children in Australia are diagnosed with cancer;
- On average, 3 Australian children die from cancer every week;
- Cancer is the largest killer of children from disease in Australia;
- Childhood cancer represents a significant number of life years lost, second only to breast cancer;
- The most common childhood cancers are acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, brain cancer and neuroblastoma;
- Prior to the 1960s, childhood cancer was almost always fatal;
- Today, in Australia, survival rates are about 75% across all types of childhood cancer;
- We still do not fully understand what causes childhood cancer;
- In Australia, 1 in 900 young adults aged between 16 and 45 years is a survivor of childhood cancer;
- Many survivors experience long-term effects of disease and cancer-related therapies, including secondary cancers;
Fast Facts about Neuroblastoma
- Neuroblastoma almost exclusively strikes infants and children and is the third most common type of Childhood Cancer after Leukaemia and brain tumors;
- Neuroblastoma is a complex cancer and can present in various ways and in different forms and as a result, survival rates differ significantly;
- Neuroblastoma is a disease in which cancer cells form in nerve tissue of the adrenal gland, neck, chest or spinal cord;
- Common symptoms include a lump in the abdomen, neck or chest;
- The prognosis for neuroblastoma depends on the age of the child when diagnosed, the stage of the cancer, where the tumour is located and how quickly the tumor cells are growing;
- There are 4 stages of neuroblastoma. Stages depend on whether the tumour can be completely removed surgically and if it has spread to lymph nodes or other parts of the body;
Neuroblastoma Staging:
Stage 1:
-The tumour is only in one area and all of the visible tumour is completely removed during surgery;
Stage 2A:
-The tumour is only in one area and all of the visible tumour cannot be completely removed during surgery;
Stage 2 B:
The tumour is only in one area and all of the visible tumour may be completely removed during surgery, but cancer cells are found in the lymph nodes near the tumour;
Stage 3:
- The tumour cannot be completely removed during surgery and has spread from one side of the body to the other side; or
- The tumor is in only one area, but has spread to lymph nodes on the other side of the body; or
- The tumor is in the middle of the body and has spread to tissues or lymph nodes on both sides of the body;
Stage 4:
The tumour has spread to distant lymph nodes, the skin or other parts of the body
Treatment for neuroblastoma:
Treatment for neuroblastoma is based on risk groups:
Low Risk:
- Relative small tumour(s) which can easily be removed, followed by careful follow-up;
Intermediate Risk:
-Larger tumour, which has not spread, but cannot be completely removed by surgery, followed by 4-8 sessions of chemo therapy;
High Risk:
- The tumour has spread to other parts of the body, some of which cannot be removed by surgery. Treatment include five months of chemotherapy, surgery, radiation therapy, high dose chemotherapy followed by his/her own stem cell rescue and immunotherapy combined with biological therapy.
Saskia's diagnoses and treatment has progressed from the initial Low Risk, to Intermediate Risk and now High Risk.
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