A recent expert study stated that brain cancer is the deadliest childhood cancer in the United States and triggered attention to other cancers afflicting children, which were not in the limelight.
The findings of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have now turned the gaze to such cancers which are spreading fast among children. The report by CDC said brain cancer among U.S. kids has pushed blood cancer or leukemia to the second spot.
The CDC report also said deaths from leukemia subsided thanks to the progress made in blood cancer treatment. As reported in Tech Times, childhood brain cancer fatalities zoomed from 516 in 1999 to 534 in 2014.
The CDC report noted that child blood cancer killed 445 in 2014 and was down from 645 in 1999. In addition to brain cancer and leukemia, other childhood cancers have accounted for 81.6 percent of all childhood cancer deaths in 2014.
Other fatal childhood cancers include the following:
-Bone Cancer
-Articular Cartilage Cancer
-Thyroid Cancer
-Endocrine Glands Cancer
-Mesothelial Soft Tissue Cancer
Brain Cancer: Brain cancer and tumors on the nervous system often manifest as headaches, dizziness, blurred vision, nausea, seizures and trouble in walking and handling objects.
Neuroblastoma: Neuroblastoma affects nerve cells of children and the tumor appears in the belly with large swellings. Wilms tumor or nephroblastoma attacks kidneys of children at the age of 3 or 4 years.
Bone Cancers: Child bone cancers are of two types. Osteosarcoma is noticed among teens with bone pain and swelling around the bone. Ewing sarcoma causes pain and swelling in the bones, and hip bones and ribs are the most affected.
Lymphomas: Lymphomas affect the immune cells or lymphocytes and appear at lymph nodes such as in the tonsils. The symptoms include tiredness, weight loss, fever and swollen lymph under the skin in the neck or groin, according to a cancer-related research publication.
Blood Cancer vs. Brain Cancer
"Forms of leukemia that a generation ago was almost universally fatal are almost universally curable," noted Sally Curtin, the CDC report's author, commenting on the decline in blood cancer among kids.
Compounding the problem of expanding childhood brain cancer is the difficulty in treating the malaise. This is because blood-brain barrier stonewalls the central nervous system from taking cancer medicines and hampers chemotherapy treatment.
"With leukemia, you are giving the therapy directly into the blood and hence to the bone marrow which is exactly where the cancer is," Curtin said and urged more research into childhood brain cancers.
