How to Detect Childhood Cancer

Childhood cancer, Capital Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Alliance

Although cancers are often associated with old ages, there are a small number of cancers occurring in children. In the United States, there are about 10,000 to 11,000 new cases of childhood cancer every year and about 1500 deaths due to cancers in children aged between 0 and 14. Treatment of childhood cancers, like cancers in other age groups, benefit greatly from early detection. Learn to detect cancer in your child here.

Instructions

1. If your child has unexplained joint pain, fever, bleeding and weakness, check for leukemia (cancer of white blood cells). Leukemia accounts for almost 1/3 of childhood cancers.

2. If your child has swelling or lumps in the abdomen, he may have neuroblastoma, which is a type of cancer of the nervous system or Wilms tumor, which is childhood kidney cancer.

3. Consult your doctor about the possibility that your child has brain cancer if he has headaches, vomiting, blurred vision, dizziness or troubled walking or handling objects. Brain cancer accounts for about 20 percent of childhood cancer.

4. If you child has swelling of the lymph nodes in the groin, neck or armpit and fever, he may develop non-Hodgkin or Hodgkin lymphoma.

5. Do not panic if your child has one or some of the symptoms of childhood cancer. The above cancer symptoms are shared by many non life-threatening conditions. However, you need to consult your doctors if any of the symptoms persists or occur frequently with no clear explanation.

Resources

• Childhood Cancer