Words no parent wants to hear

By William Sallette, Tripler Army Medical CenterSeptember 1, 2017

Words no parent wants to hear
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

HONOLULU -- (August 25th, 2017) September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month and every year across the nation more than 15,000 will hear the words, "Your child has cancer." Cancer is a very stressful diagnosis that affects all ages, ethnic groups and socioeconomic classes.

Cancer is the number one death by disease in children and even with major advances in medicine over the last half-century, the number of children diagnosed with cancer has not decreased.

"We generally average about 15-20 new patients a year," said Lt. Col. Jeremy Edwards, Department of Pediatric chief and assistant chief of the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology clinic at Tripler Army Medical Center.

The average age of a child diagnosed with cancer is six years-old and more than 40 children are diagnosed every day. The cause of cancer in children is still unknown and even though new treatments are being developed daily to combat this disease, help sometimes doesn't come soon enough.

Compared to fifty years ago, up to 90 percent of children that receive a diagnosis of cancer survive. That is an increase of 80 percent. However, they are commonly plagued with late-effects such as infertility, heart failure and secondary cancers.

"The chemotherapy we use to cure cancer can actually lead to a secondary, therapy-related, cancer later in life for some children," said Edwards. "Around 90 percent of children who receive therapy for cancer will have some type of long term effect they will have to deal with for the rest of their lives."

According to Edwards, many different cancers affect children each year, but Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, brain and other central nervous system tumors, and Neuroblastoma account for more than half of all new diagnoses.

"The most common type of cancer in all children is Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells," said Edwards. "This makes up around 60 percent of all childhood cancers. However, over the past year we have treated patients with leukemia, colon cancer, kidney cancer and muscle cancer, just to name a few."

Since many treatments for adult cancer can be detrimental for children, Tripler Pediatric Oncology clinic and Adult Medical Oncology clinic work side-by-side during diagnosis and treatment.

"There is often less funding for pediatric cancer research, so we rely on cooperative research groups to determine the state-of-the art therapy," said Edwards. "We work closely with the adult medical oncology physicians to determine the best treatment course, regardless of age. Sometimes we take over care of the adult patient and our adult colleagues will take over care of the younger patient. The key to the relationship is the teamwork and respect that we all have for each other here at Tripler."

For more information on childhood cancers, got to www.cancer.gov/types/childhood-cancers