Busting Myths about Childhood Cancer

About 10,500 children in the United States will be diagnosed with cancer in 2021. But surprisingly, there is still plenty of false information on the internet that prevents a person from expanding their awareness about childhood cancer with accurate information. Let us get rid of some of this false information.

MYTH: A child getting cancer is very rare and if a child does get cancer, then the child must have had neglectful parents.

TRUTH: The average age that a child gets diagnosed with cancer is 10. What dangerous lifestyle choices could a 10 year old possibly make to increase their chances of getting cancer? The list is very short. The chances of a child getting cancer is very small compared to an adult because children don’t have the capability to follow through with lifestyle choices that can possibly affect an adult to get cancer (such as smoking or vaping). There is nothing a child or their parents could have done to prevent them from getting cancer. That being said, there have been numerous studies published that have proved that more than 8 percent of children with cancer were found to have inherited genetic mutations from their parents. Again, neither the child, nor the parents, are responsible for this. Furthermore, studies have shown that childhood cancer cannot generally be identified through normal screening (such as an X-Ray), which makes it even harder for figuring out whether a child has cancer or not.

MYTH: People who suffered from childhood cancer might have less life expectancy than their peers.

TRUTH: People who suffered from childhood cancers often live as long, or even more than their peers. They may be subject to more minor illnesses (due to their weakened immune system) and may develop side effects from cancer treatment, such as infertility. On the other hand, in cancers with extreme treatments, such as Leukemia and Lymphoma, approximately 2 out of 3 survivors will still develop at least one chronic health condition (for example, musculoskeletal problems). But with proper medication, people can live through a normal duration of life.

MYTH: Childhood cancer is similar to adult cancer, and therefore a child cancer patient can be taken to an adult oncologist.

TRUTH: Cancer in children is often more serious than adult cancer because children don’t have fully developed immune systems that are capable of combating the infectious genes of cancer. For example, neuroblastoma (cancer of the nervous tissue) is more detrimental to a child’s spinal cord than an adult’s spinal cord because the spinal cord tissue in a child is not fully developed with all the genetic mechanisms needed. Therefore, it's important for a very experienced pediatric oncologist to handle a childhood cancer case because treatment of a child with cancer is very different from the treatment of an adult with cancer. More often than not, a pediatric oncology hospital or clinic is part of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG). It is important that a child diagnosed with cancer gets treated in a hospital that is a member of the COG in order to make sure that the treatment that the child is receiving is verified and accurate.

In high income countries, more than 80% of children with cancer are cured, but in many low income countries, only 15-45% of children with cancer are cured. That is still an average of approximately 40% of diagnosed childhood cancer patients that remain uncured. It is important to distinguish between the false and accurate information about childhood cancer, so that these childhood cancer patients and their respective families get help and so that the numbers of uncured childhood patients go down.

Once the majority of people understand the difference between these myths and truths about childhood cancer, it will become much easier for our society to deal with childhood cancer not being a stigma, and it will become much easier for childhood cancer patients and their families to openly talk about their pathway through navigating childhood cancer.

Sources:

https://www.mountelizabeth.com.sg/healthplus/article/childhood-cancer-myths

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-in-children/preventing-childhood-cancers.html

https://www.acco.org/types-of-childhood-cancer/

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-in-children/key-statistics.html

https://curesearch.org/childhood-cancer-statistics

https://www.acco.org/us-childhood-cancer-statistics/

https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2015/pediatric-germline#:~:text=In%20the%20most%20comprehensive%20study,a%20predisposition%20to%20the%20disease.

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-in-children/differences-adults-children.html

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cancer-in-children