Childhood cancer is something that can bring tears to your eyes when someone you know has been diagnosed. Good news is that approximately 80% of children are now surviving the specific cancers they have been diagnosed with. We know that children that receive chemotherapy and radiation have much greater side effects than ones that only have to deal with chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that uses a specific chemical makeup including anti-cancer drugs and are given to a patient to help get rid of their cancer cells. Radiation, on the other hand, is an emission of energy that can be used to destroy or shrink the cancer cells that are being produced. This type of treatment has much harder consequences and side effects compared to chemotherapy. Some of the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation are some learning and memory issues when the radiation involves the brain. Chest radiations also can cause cancers to come back or new cancers to evolve. These are …show more content…
They have currently found a way to make treatments less toxic and harmful to the children but still making it effective to use. According to a study completed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology it showed that the amount of childhood deaths due to cancer was down 6.4% from 1970 to 1994. This study had tested approximately 34,000 patients that had survived their original cancers and had lived a total of five years after treatment had ended. The study also looked at these patients to see how heavily the cancer weighed on their lives. This being the treatments that they had previously received during their childhood and how they had been effected for the time after the cancer was gone. The patients in this study were shown not to have died because of their cancer coming back, heart or lung problems, or even developing another cancer because of the treatments that had received while treating their cancers
Home is where you are always welcome and the one place where you will always be surrounded by those who love and support you. Home to me is cornfields, friday night football games, constant flat tires, and bonfires with my dearest friends all in the small town of Adams. I’ve spent my entire life living in the country surrounded by dirt roads where those dirt roads twist and turn and eventually lead me into Adams. Adams is a town of roughly 600 people but that number is solely just a number because Adams is just a huge support group from the day you are brought into this world to the day you leave this world. Adams is a town where everybody knows everybody and people come together in times of devastation, to celebrate a Freeman Falcon win, or to watch some fireworks on the Fourth of July. I’m proud to
Through the study, I have found out that there is minimum research in pediatric cancer and many parents from poor families find it difficult to pay for medical fee. In addition, funding for research will be effective in curbing the effects of cancer in children even as they transit to adulthood.
When it comes to cancer, so much of the world’s knowledge is based on statistics. For example, each day forty-six children, or more than two full classrooms of kids, are diagnosed with cancer and one out of every three hundred thirty people will develop cancer before the age of twenty. The simplest and most important of these statistics is this, “Cancer is the number one cause of death by disease in children.” Pediatric cancer takes the lives of more people than the number of children who die from asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis and pediatric AIDS combined! About one thousand three hundred and eighty children are expected to die from cancer this year alone. Although the cure rate of children with cancer is steadily increasing for most childhood cancers over the past five years, the number of children who will die is overwhelming and unacceptable.
Brandon Stanton, the mind behind Humans of New York, has taken a couple weeks off from shooting in the streets of New York City to take photos and gather stories within the Pediatrics Department of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Center in New York City.
1. Chemotherapy is frequently used for childhood cancer because what it does is it stops the cancer cells from growing either by stopping the division of the cells or by killing them. (Bernard, Samantha C. et al., 2017)
Each year there are about one million three hundred seventy thousand deaths worldwide from lung cancer. Lung cancer is a particular type of cancer that is more deadly and common with other types of cancer. Lung cancer for most people can be avoided because cigarette smoking is the primary cause of lung cancer. Of course, there are other ways that increase the chance of lung cancer that can’t be avoided, like if it runs in the family. There are two different types of lung cancer small cell lung cancer, and non-small cell lung cancer. In order to determine what the specific type is it needs to be looked at under a microscope as the two types have different treatments. There are many symptoms that may be associated with lung cancer, not all are present in the chest, some symptoms occur in different regions of the body. Lung cancer had a variety of treatment options. The patient's doctor will decide what treatment is best for them depending on their type of cancer and what stage of cancer they have. In the novel The Longest Ride Ira Levinson, a ninety-one-year-old man had been battling lung cancer for the past few months. Sadly his cancer did not get found early enough, so his last few years turned into only a few more weeks.
Pediatric oncology is a high acuity clinical field, where nurses experience loss and grief on daily bases. Due to the nature of their work, they experience intense stress, ethical dilemma, and poorer job performance, which effects their physical and psychological state (Conte, 2014). There was a study done in the children’s hospital located on the West Coast of U.S.A. targeting the experiences of pediatric oncology nurses to analyze their overall well-being affected by job related loss and grief (Conte, 2014).
Out of 100,000 children 32.1 cancer diagnoses occur in the age group 0-14, 138.6 occur in the 15-39 age group, and 2,053.8 occur in 40 and older (cancer.gov). Pediatric cancer, being so rare, makes research and development hard to fund because there are not many eligible participants for each specific trial. This creates a “Catch 22” by having a good societal support system, yet not having enough “return-on-investment” (Milne). Pediatric cancer is the leading cause of death in children after accidents, however the amount of deaths has lower drastically in recent years. The mortality rate as a whole has decreased by fifty percent in the last thirty years, however for patients with cancers other than lymphoma or leukemia the mortality rate has not declined since 1996 (Analysis of the National Cancer Institute’s Investment). Lymphoma and leukemia are the most common cancers that children are diagnosed with, but there are many more that can occur that need new research in order to discover ways to decrease the current mortality rate. In 1960 it was discovered that leukemia could be treated by “combination chemotherapy and dose intensity” this brought the curability up from 10% before this discovery to 80% by the 1990s (Norris and Adamson). Although this treatment has been successful for leukemia patients, the most common of childhood cancers, it is not as successful with other types of cancer. There are currently clinical trials that take place to begin trying to find treatments or cure for pediatric cancer, however because of lack of funding many of the trials do not continue or never really take off. Due to the lack of funding and efforts put forth into research for pediatric cancer more the 2,500 children die in America every year (thetruth365.org). Children diagnosed with cancer deserve more work to be put into finding a cure so they can go on to live long, happy
As established in the National Cancer Institute, “Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide for children and adolescents in America, accounting for more than 91,250 children that lose their lives to this disease” (National Cancer Institute). Cancer is not considered a terminal illness, but more of a chronic illness because of the intense treatment that the individual has to endure. As a result of this treatment the chances of survival for children suffering from pediatric cancer has increased around 80 percent. The increment in the survival rate has made it possible for many parents to not have to go through the acceptance that they are about to lose their child to a terminal illness, but have coping strategies that will make them adapt to the fear of the reoccurrence of that illness. This illness has a great impact on the patient as well as the family because not only do they have to adapt to this illness physically, but also mentally. Research has shown that there are both short term and long term effects that come into effect when the child is both in treatment and also years after the treatment. The type of cancers that these adolescents have to endure range from leukemia, brain tumors and other cancerous tumors that have appeared in recent medical studies. These tumors can either be benignant, an acute case that is non-cancerous or malignant, a cancerous case that will need intense treatment over an extended period of time.While many would say there is more of a
1. The two primary roles for nursing profession in cancer prevention include prevention and teaching. Prevention is aimed at preventing adult type cancers and informing people of possible carcinogens, including cigarette smoking and excess exposure to light. Lung cancer is a leading cause of death in America. The teaching aspect would be teaching family the signs and symptoms of possible childhood cancer. Unfortunately the signs and symptoms of cancer in children can be very subtle and may be diagnosed later d/t this.
Cancer is a word that no one wants to hear or think about, however there are many people
Cancer is very uncommon in children but, sadly, it does happen. Cancer does not discriminate. It can affect both boys and girls, those of any race or social class, and it can be diagnosed in babies as well as young adults. The most common types of childhood cancers are leukemia, lymphoma, and brain cancer. Most cancers in children result from mutations in the genes of growing cells, which is much different than cancer in adults where it is primarily attributed to lifestyle or environmental factors. Because the cause of childhood cancer is unknown, there is no way of preventing it. A diagnosis is often made during a child’s regular checkup, when the doctor detects something abnormal. Some of the first symptoms include fever, swollen glands,
You are watching the television, and a St. Jude commercial comes on. The commercial gets you thinking about those small children that are fighting to survive. Maybe you donate to the cancer organization, maybe you will not. This commercial gets you thinking of those children, and families, and how they are coping with this big obstacle in their lives. The commercial shows all of those sick innocent children in the hospital that need help, and answers. Childhood cancer is something that can either give a child a second life as a result, or take their life away at such a young age. Most people do not know a lot about cancer, or the ways that they can help cancer victims. There are many things that people can learn about childhood cancer such as, the most common types of childhood cancer, the ways to treat it, bringing awareness to this vicious illness, and how the doctors, families, and patients deal with this challenge.
On research article from The University of Wisconsin Medical School looks at optimizing the radiation therapy does for children with medulloblastomas and if they can minimize the life years lost due to failure of controlling the disease as well as complications risks. "Morbidity and mortality is a known issue for childhood cancer patients. Our data reflects this, but also emphasizes that lack of tumor control is by far the dominant cause of life years lost and, consequently, strategies to decrease the risk of late complications should be carefully weighed against the potential loss in tumor control probability".3 This study showed that therapy was more helpful at treating the tumor. Another study done at Baylor College of Medicine was a follow up study in pediatric brain tumor patient treated with surgery and radiation. They stated "radiation therapy has led directly to significant increases in survival of children with certain types of intracranial tumors; however, given the aggressive nature of this therapy, children are at risk for exhibiting changes in brain structure, neuronal biochemistry, and neurocognitive functioning".4 This study shows that radiation therapy does increase survival rates as well, but shows that there are effects that come with
Cancer. You never thought you would be one of the unlucky human beings to get cancer, but then all of a sudden, you’re sick. Throwing up, not being able to swallow anything, and chest pains. You go to the doctor and he says something you are not expecting. Something you never thought you would ever hear. You have cancer. Did you know that men are more likely to get Esophageal cancer than women? Tobacco and Alcohol use is the leading cause of this type of cancer. In this essay, I will be talking about Esophageal cancer. I will cover the topics of what it is, causes of the disease, how to treat it, how to prevent it, and the many effects it has on your body. Cancer is a disease that no one wants, but it is a disease everyone is willing to fight if it means getting your life back.