When Cancer is Suspected

Children and adolescents suspected of having cancer should be evaluated at a hospital with a cancer center developed especially for children.

The pediatric oncologist and childhood cancer treatment and research centers are the experts in treating children with cancer. Family doctors, general pediatricians or oncologists who specialize in treating cancers of adults are not as aware as the experts of the various new treatments available to children.

There are childhood cancer treatment and research centers in almost every region of the U.S. and Canada and in many other countries. Usually there is a multi-disciplinary team of childhood cancer experts at a hospital available to children near their home.

Since childhood cancer is uncommon, children need evaluation by experts in childhood cancer as soon as cancer is suspected. The correct diagnosis depends upon examination by several types of childhood specialists and some sophisticated laboratory tests. These are available at established childhood cancer centers.

Childhood Cancer Today

Of all the illnesses that a child may have, cancer is often the scariest. Yet today, parents have good reasons to be optimistic since almost 80 percent of children with cancer can be cured if they are referred to established childhood cancer treatment and research centers.

Children's cancer centers have developed comprehensive health care teams that include all medical specialties with the skills needed to diagnose and treat children with cancer. This is why most pediatricians and family practitioners will refer children suspected of having cancer to a childhood cancer center.

The Importance of Childhood Cancer Awarness

• Each year in the U.S., approximately 12,500 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer. That's the equivalent of two average size classrooms diagnosed each school day.
  
  
• Today, nearly 80 percent of children diagnosed with cancer become long-term survivors and the majority of them are considered cured. In the early 1950s, less than 10 percent of childhood cancer patients could be cured.
  
  
• Leukemias, tumors of the brain and nervous system, the lymphatic system, kidneys, bones and muscles are the most common childhood cancers.
  
  
• In the U.S., cancer remains responsible for more deaths from one year through adolescence than any other disease; more deaths than asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis and AIDS combined.
  
  
• Combined, the cancers of children, adolescents and young adults to age 20 are the sixth most common cancer in the U.S.