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WHAT IS CHILDHOOD CANCER?

What is Childhood Cancer?
What Kinds of Cancer Do Kids Get?
How is Cancer Diagnosed?
How is Cancer Treated?
What are the Side Effects of Cancer Treatments?

What is Childhood Cancer?
Cancer can be a scary word for kids and adults. Cancer is the name of an illness that affects different parts of the body. There are many types of cancer. Different types of cancer affect different parts of the body, like the bones, the blood, or the brain.

Your body is made up of cells. Cells are the smallest part of the body—they are so small that you need a microscope to see them. There are many different types of cells that make up all of the different parts of the body. New cells in the body grow by dividing.

Cancer means cells start growing differently or dividing more quickly than normal. Cancer cells growing together can form a tumor. A tumor is a clump of cells that gets bigger as it grows, which leaves less room for the body's healthy cells to grow.

Because there are so many different kinds of cells, cancer can develop in many different places in the body. Doctors and scientists are not sure why some cells become cancer cells and others don't, but they are working hard to find the answers.

People with cancer usually get better because of the work doctors and scientists are doing. Cancer is rare, especially in children. It is not contagious. You can't catch cancer from someone who has it, like a cold or the flu. You can't get cancer from touching or playing with someone who has it. But, you can learn more about it!

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What Kinds of Cancer Do Kids Get?
There are different types of cancer. Even though cancer is rare, some types are more common for children to have than adults. Kids with cancer will usually have leukemia, brain cancer, or lymphomas.

• Leukemia
  Leukemia is the most common type of cancer that affects kids, even though leukemia is a rare disease. Leukemia affects the body's bone marrow.

  The bone marrow is where the body makes red and white blood cells. Your body uses white blood cells to fight infections and illness. Leukemia makes the white blood cells grow too quickly for the body to use them. Then, the body can't fight infections and stay healthy.

• Brain Tumor
  When a group of cancer cells grows together, they can form a clump called a tumor. Tumors can grow anywhere in the body, even the brain.

  The brain controls the whole body. When a tumor is in the brain, healthy brain cells have no room to grow. Brain tumors affect people differently, depending on where the tumor is in the brain.

• Lymphoma
  The lymphatic system keeps the body healthy by fighting infections and diseases. The many parts of the lymphatic system branch all over your body.
  
  

  When cancer affects the lymphatic system, it is called a lymphoma. Lymphomas make it hard for the body to fight germs and infections. Hodgkin's Disease is one type of lymphoma.

• Other Types of Cancer
  Cancer can grow in many different places in the body. Each type of cancer has its own name. Sometimes, cancer is named after the organ it affects, like stomach cancer. Some types of cancer are named after the doctor or scientist that discovered it, or a famous person that had the cancer.
  
  

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How is Cancer Diagnosed?
Only a doctor can tell for sure if a person has cancer. A doctor will do different tests to find out if a person has cancer, and what kind of cancer it is.

One of these tests is a blood test. Using a small sample of blood, a doctor will look in a microscope to see if cancer cells are in the body. A doctor can also look in a sample of urine, or pee, to see if there are cancer cells.

Sometimes, doctors have to look more closely inside the body to see if a person has cancer or to figure out what kind of cancer it is. To see if a person has leukemia, a doctor will take a sample of bone marrow.

Bone marrow is like a jelly found inside of large bones in the body. Bone marrow makes the blood cells that the body needs to stay healthy. A doctor will use a microscope to see if there are cancer cells in the sample of bone marrow to tell if a person has leukemia.

Doctors can also use x-rays and other types of imaging tests to look for tumors inside the body.

Doctors use x-rays, MRI, and CT scans to see where tumors are in the body and how big they are. Then, doctors can figure out the best way to treat the cancer.

When doctors want the closest look possible, a person will have a special type of surgery called a biopsy. During the biopsy, a small piece of the cancer is taken out of the body so that doctors can look at it more closely. The biopsy tells doctors what kind of cancer the person has and helps doctors figure out the best way to treat it.

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How is Cancer Treated?
There are different ways to treat cancer. Chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery are the most common ways to treat the kinds of cancer that kids get.

• Chemotherapy
  Strong medicines called chemotherapy can kill cancer cells or make them stop growing. Doctors give chemotherapy to people in a shot, pill, or drink. Chemotherapy treatments can make a person feel very tired or sick. Sometimes, chemotherapy makes a person's hair fall out. This happens because chemotherapy kills cells that grow fast, like cancer cells. Hair cells also grow fast, even though they aren't cancer cells. But, these side effects only last a short time, and hair grows back quickly after chemotherapy treatments are over.
  
  
• Radiation
  Doctors and scientists can use powerful energy waves to kill cancer cells. In radiation treatments, a doctor uses a special machine that points the energy waves right where the cancer is growing, to kill the cancer cells. The energy waves are invisible. Radiation treatments don't hurt. In fact, the person getting radiation can't even feel the energy waves.
  
  
• Surgery
  Doctors will sometimes remove cancer cells from the body during surgery. Doctors make sure that the person having surgery doesn't feel any pain by using special drugs to make the person go to sleep during the operation.

Sometimes, kids with cancer will have to have chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery to make sure the cancer is all gone. Doctors use chemotherapy and radiation to make the tumor small enough for it to be removed by surgery.

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What are the Side Effects of Cancer Treatments?
Cancer treatments help make a person healthy by making the cancer go away. But, sometimes, the treatments can affect other parts of the body besides the cancer. Doctors call these "side effects" because they happen as a result of the treatments. Some common side effects that kids being treated for cancer will have are described below:

• Some cancer treatments can make kids throw up and feel nauseous, like they have a really bad stomachache. Doctors can give kids medicine to help these feelings go away.
  
  
• Another side effect of cancer treatment is that foods taste and smell funny. Some kids say that food tastes bitter or like metal when they are having cancer treatments. They may not be able to eat the foods they like because they don't taste the same.
  
  
• Other cancer treatments can make kids lose their hair. This can be really hard for some kids. They worry that people will make fun of them for having no hair. The good news is that hair grows back quickly after the cancer treatments are finished.

In the body, the immune system fights germs and keeps people from getting sick. Most cancer treatments make the immune system weak. This means it is really easy for kids having cancer treatments to catch illnesses like colds or chickenpox.

Remember to always wash your hands after you blow your nose or go to the bathroom so that you won't spread germs. Also, tell your teacher if you or someone in your family has chickenpox. You can carry those germs and not even know it!

Cancer treatments can also make kids feel really tired. It's hard work for the body to fight cancer, and kids having cancer treatments will probably need lots of rest. When the cancer treatments are finished, their energy will come back.

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