Children and Cancer: Unique Challenges and Courage in Young Patients

The truth is that childhood cancer breaks your heart; it´s just like this… The child must only act differently in everyday life, not in its surroundings and family. Knowing this can help us if they need any assistance.

Even though it is not widely discussed, childhood cancer is anything but rare, with over 17,000 children receiving some variation of the diagnosis in America each year. This is the most common diagnosis globally, occurring in nearly 400,000 children and adolescents annually. For the most part, survival rates are encouraging; 84% of children in the USA diagnosed with cancer will live at least five years or longer, as compared to adult cancers, which start out much lower and range widely according to type.

Childhood cancers include leukemia, brain tumors, and neuroblastoma. Leukemia affects the blood and bone marrow, while brain tumors are devastating weaknesses that hinder different things depending on their origin within the human mind. Neuroblastoma (which develops from immature nerve cells) is also more likely to affect infants and very young children, usually starting in the adrenal glands. However, it can grow in other sites, such as the abdomen or chest.

Childhood cancer is vastly different from adult cancer. It occurs much less frequently, but how it needs to be treated and cured works more separately than what you’d do with adults fighting these terrible cells. With a different body response to drugs, they also experience the unpleasant side effects of therapies, such as chemotherapy in general, poorly. Their growing systems have a more challenging time with treatments that make an adult’s cells more familiar (radiation therapy included). Heavy medical challenges also include side effects (e.g., nausea [21], fatigue, and hair loss), long-term impact due to surgery irradiation of all diseases diagnosed before the age of depletion in younger patients aged 20–22, and the need for specialized care.

The emotional pendulum that a cancer diagnosis can create is breathtaking, especially for the young. The toll on the mind is excellent, for it creates fear and anxiety; their image of themselves becomes so distorted that they can lose interest entirely in what had interested them before. Treating him surgically can be frightening for children, who may become anxious and depressed and have makeover concerns. Some articles like this are what ‘Understanding Emotional Health and Childhood Cancer’ does.

Thus, it is imperative to understand the issues facing children and their families to implement adequate support. If we acknowledge the reality that these young people are heroes who need their families to be supported ridiculously more than they ever have been before, only then can we begin working towards a society that truly treats all impacted justly.

Not only are a childhood cancer diagnosis and the upcoming emotional support worrying for parents, especially when thinking about transitioning to medical appointments,. Siblings, for example, may feel left out or worried that the family is paying too much attention to their sick brother. According to Knowlton, this information can help create a robust support system and treatment plan for young adult cancer survivors.

Sponsor: Healthcare providers must work actively and comprehensively for pediatric cancer survivors. Pediatric oncologists, nurses, and mental health providers are three very different roles in a vastly undifferentiated field, yet together they surround the child with cancer. While pediatric oncologists design personalized treatment plans related to the medical side of each cancer, nurses provide 24-hour support and care for that same child throughout their entire journey. We all require professional assistance in terms of managing our feelings and how children can manage their emotions. This is where the mental health professionals—these wonder men—therapists—live!

Once they have been discharged, children and their families rely on peer support as well as community resources. If you have a peer support group, children can express themselves openly and meet others who are walking alongside them. Each organization, in its own way, contributes to helping the families of these parents maneuver through financial assistance, educational resources & recreational offers for children fighting or who have fought cancer. They relieve families from some of the pressure and allow families to focus on what they need to be thinking about—remember: healthy, happy kids.

It feels like navigating a medical minefield when trying to determine the best course of action for your child’s cancer. The standard treatment for renal cell carcinoma (RCC) includes chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgery. Chemotherapy (chemo) uses anti-cancer drugs that kill cancer cells but can also harm healthy cells. Chemo is given in cycles: a treatment followed by time to recover, and then another treatment. Radiation therapy destroys or damages cancer cells with high-energy waves without hurting much of the normal tissue. Surgery: It helps to eradicate the tumors and acts as an aid in chemotherapy and radiation therapy so that they are more effective.

This knowledge empowers families to deliberate with their team for the best possible method of treatment, and ultimately, it provides peace in learning what is next for your child. If we can acknowledge the dependency of these cancer children, then this might allow us to ever better backstops and treatments that help them as well as their families a little more than already.

Clinical trials are the only way to move pediatric oncology forward and better understand whether new drugs or treatment paradigms that could be less toxic but more effective than currently available therapies would have a meaningful benefit for these young patients. If you are a family member who might be interested in additional treatment options, clinical trials help to study how new drugs or novel therapeutic approaches work. The Children’s Oncology Group (COG) controls a vast number of trials across the world and by treating what might be an otherwise easy decision to participate in a clinical trial, it kind of negotiates it on its head.

Most survivors of childhood cancers can experience some type of physical or cognitive late effects, for example, heart or lung problems, etc. The American Cancer Society has an extensive collection of resources on late effects.

The effects of bystander intervention may result in moving from patient to survivor: Addressing the physical and emotional challenges of survivors. Late effects require medical surveillance, educational interventions and psychiatric services to ensure the best QOL. The POGO comprehensive care model family might also include specialty survivorship clinics offering dedicated follow-up for childhood cancer survivors, as well services by schools such specialized programs designed to support those experiencing cognitive or motor difficulties. Build new spaces in conjunction with counseling services or groups for survivors to discuss experiences safely, resisting steps from the recovery process.

This is a child with cancer, so everyone will agree that they have to face life and fight every day. Treat them as a patient whose effects spread beyond the body into socialisation or even emotional levels. These are the people who require love and help, which they will obtain from their families, friends, doctors, etc. This helps everybody in their lives to be able to comprehend what they may experience and how best to support them. But, just like the way people from different communities can appreciate getting help more than others, how much they care for you performing that service is related to the respect of your community. Let us respect these young warriors by gently nurturing them.