Key Facts

Each year, about 400,000 children and adolescents between 0 and 19 years of age develop cancer.
The most common types of cancer in children include leukemia, brain cancer, lymphomas and solid tumors, such as neuroblastomas and Wilms' tumors.
In high-income countries where comprehensive services are generally available, more than 80% of children with cancer are cured. In low- and middle-income countries, less than 30% of these children recover.
Childhood cancer generally cannot be prevented or identified by screening.
Most types of childhood cancer can be treated with generic drugs and other types of treatment, including surgery and radiotherapy. Childhood cancer treatment can be cost-effective in all income contexts.
Deaths from preventable childhood cancers in low- and middle-income countries are attributable to poor diagnosis, misdiagnosis or delay in diagnosis, barriers to access to care, treatment abandonment, toxicity and relapse. ?
Only 29% of low-income countries report that cancer drugs are generally available to their populations, compared to 96% of high-income countries that have them.
Systems for collecting data on childhood cancer are needed to catalyze continuous improvements in the quality of care and to guide policy decision-making.
the problem

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death for children and adolescents. The likelihood that children diagnosed with cancer will survive depends on which country the child lives in: in high-income countries, more than 80% of children with cancer are cured, while in low- and middle-income countries less than 30% of children with cancer are cured. [2, 3].

Reasons for low survival rates in low- and middle-income countries are: delayed diagnosis, inability to obtain an accurate diagnosis, lack of access to treatment, neglect of treatment, toxicity-related death (side-effects), and avoidable relapse. Improving access to pediatric cancer care, including essential medicines and technologies, is cost-effective and can improve survival rates in all settings [4].

What are the causes of children's cancer?

Cancer affects people of all ages and can affect any part of the body. It begins with a genetic change in individual cells that then grow into a mass (or tumor), invade other parts of the body and cause damage and death if left untreated. Other than adult cancer, the vast majority of childhood cancers are of unknown etiology. Many studies have sought to determine the causes of childhood cancer, but very few types of childhood cancer are caused by environmental or lifestyle factors. Efforts to prevent childhood cancer should focus on behaviors that prevent children from developing preventable cancer as adults.

Some chronic infections, such as HIV, Epstein-Barr virus and malaria, are risk factors for childhood cancer and are particularly important in low- and middle-income countries. Other infections can increase a child's risk of developing cancer as an adult, so vaccinations (for hepatitis B to help prevent liver cancer, and for HPV to help prevent cervical cancer) are important. Others, such as early detection of infection of chronic conditions that can cause cancer, and treatment of those conditions.

Current data indicate that approximately 10% of all children diagnosed with cancer have a predisposition to developing it for reasons related to genetic factors [5]. More research is needed to determine the factors that influence the development of cancer in children.

Improving outcomes in pediatric cancer treatment

Given that childhood cancer is generally not preventable, the most effective strategy to reduce the burden of childhood cancer and improve health outcomes is to focus on prompt and accurate diagnosis and then the availability of efficacious, evidence-based treatment and tailored supportive care.

early diagnosis

When cancer is diagnosed early, the patient is more likely to respond to effective treatment, thus increasing the odds of survival, reducing his suffering, reducing the high costs of treatment and reducing the burden of treatment in most cases. Significant improvements in the lives of children with cancer can be made by detecting it early and avoiding late care. Correct diagnosis of cancer is essential to treating children with cancer because each type of cancer requires a specific course of treatment that may involve surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

Early diagnosis consists of the following three components [6]:

awareness of symptoms for families and primary care providers;
Clinically assessing the disease, diagnosing it in a timely manner and determining its stage (determining the extent of its spread in the body)
Immediate access to treatment.
Early diagnosis is important in all settings because it improves survival rates for many types of cancer. Programs promoting early and correct diagnosis have been successfully implemented in countries of all income levels, usually through the collaborative efforts of governments, civil society groups and non-governmental organizations, with parental associations playing essential roles in this regard. Childhood cancer is associated with a range of warning symptoms that families and trained primary health-care providers can detect, including symptoms of fever and headache.