Childhood Cancer Uk

Cancer is diagnosed in about 140 per million children in Britain each year. There is a 1 in 500 chance that a child will be affected in the first 15 years of life, the most frequently occurring types of cancer being leukaemia and brain tumours. This book covers the descriptive epidemiology of childhood cancer in Britain, based on the unique work of the National Registry of Childhood Tumours, the largest population-based specialist childhood cancer registry in the world. The book provides a detailed account of national incidence and survival rates for childhood cancer in Britain during 1991-2000, and trends during 1966-2000. There is also an account of childhood mortality for the period 1965-2004. The diagnoses are classified throughout according to the International Classification of Childhood Cancer, the first time the third edition of this standard classification has been used for prevalence of incidence, survival and mortality data. The chapter on incidence rates is relevant to planning of health service provision and design of research studies on aetiology, whilst the chapter on trends in incidence is relevant to the possible effects of changes in environmental and other risk factors. In addition to comprehensive tables of rates, age-incidence graphs are provided for all the major types of childhood cancer, and possible artefacts are also discussed. The survival data demonstrates how clinical progress over the past 40 years has led to a major increase in the number of cancer survivors. The role of the Registry, covering history, methodology, current and future uses, is also discussed. This definitive work is the culmination of decades of epidemiological research and is essential reading for anyone involved in paediatric oncology or cancer epidemiology.

Since the late 1960s, the survival rate in children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer has steadily improved, with a corresponding decline in the cancer-specific death rate. Although the improvements in survival are encouraging, they have come at the cost of acute, chronic, and late adverse effects precipitated by the toxicities associated with the individual or combined use of different types of treatment (e.g., surgery, radiation, chemotherapy). In some cases, the impairments resulting from cancer and its treatment are severe enough to qualify a child for U.S. Social Security Administration disability benefits. At the request of Social Security Administration, Childhood Cancer and Functional Impacts Across the Care Continuum provides current information and findings and conclusions regarding the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of selected childhood cancers, including different types of malignant solid tumors, and the effect of those cancers on childrenâ (TM)s health and functional capacity, including the relative levels of functional limitation typically associated with the cancers and their treatment. This report also provides a summary of selected treatments currently being studied in clinical trials and identifies any limitations on the availability of these treatments, such as whether treatments are available only in certain geographic areas.

This book traces the development of British answers to the problem of childhood cancer. The establishment of the NHS and better training for paediatricians, meant children were given access to experimental chemotherapy, sending cure rates soaring. Children with cancer were thrust into the spotlight as individuals' stories of hope hit the headlines.

This publication brings together a number of papers presented at the Fourth Symposium on Clinical Oncology held at the Royal College of Radiologists, London, in February 1982. The subject of the meeting was paediatric oncology, and its objective was to provide an up-to-date review of the management of children with leukaemia and the more common forms of childhood cancer. Cancer in childhood is fortunately uncommon. The descriptive sta tistics of these diseases in the United Kingdom, and in many other countries from which data are available, are presented in some detail. Some remarkable differences in the incidence of the leukaemias, for example, are recorded throughout the world. Further studies of the reasons for such differences hopefully may provide some insight into the causation of these diseases. The leukaemias represent the most common form of neoplasia recor ded in the Manchester Children's Tumour"Registry, accounting for almost one third of all childhood cancers. Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is the most common type of leukaemia in children in all countries for which we have adequate data, with the exception of Japan. A masterful review of the achievements in the management of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is given by Professor R. M. Hardisty.

The past decade has brought extraordinary gains in the outlook for children stricken with cancer. Though cancer remains a leading cause of death for children and young adults, more victims of child hood cancer today will survive than will die. The therapeutic advances and the optimism they instill have prompted researchers and clinicians to analyze the impact of cancer upon young patients and their famil,ies and to devise more effective intervention strategies. Hope and survival, juxtaposed with the continuing high mortality associated with certain forms of the illness, add new challenges to management of the psychosocial aspects of cancer. To respond to these challenges we need research as rigorous as that which continues to make inroads in treating the physical illness. This specific concern for the needs of children suffering from cancer and their families has paralleled an increasing sensitivity on the part of the medical community and the public at large to the limitations of specialized, high technology health care practices.

This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of all aspects of childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, from basic biology to supportive care. It offers new insights into the genetic pre-disposition to the condition and discusses how response to early therapy and its basic biology are utilized to develop new prognostic stratification systems and target therapy. Readers will learn about current treatment and outcomes, such as immunotherapy and targeted therapy approaches. Supportive care and management of the condition in resource poor countries are also discussed in detail. This is an indispensable guide for research and laboratory scientists, pediatric hematologists as well as specialist nurses involved in the care of childhood leukemia.

Cancer is the second commonest cause of death, after accidents, among children in developed countries, while in developing countries, improvements in the control of communicable diseases and the occurrence of premature delivery may lead to the emergence of cancer in children as a greater public health problem than in the past. The rationale for considering childhood cancers separately from cancers in adults in that there are differences in the sites of occurrence, in the histological appearance and in their clinical behavior. This book reviews the epidemiology of specific types of childhood cancer to mid-1997. The scale of the problem is first reviewed in a major compilation of data on the descriptive epidemiology of childhood cancer, then separate chapters describe studies of the different postulated causal factors and summarize what can be concluded from them.

The field of liver tumors in children has seen tremendous therapeutic advances over recent years. This has been achieved through a much better understanding of the biology of disease, improved diagnostic procedures, refined methods of pretreatment tumor staging, the implementation of highly efficient chemotherapy and surgery, detailed monitoring of toxicity, and careful follow-up strategies. International controlled trials have played a key role in these advances, and many leading figures in the trials are among the editors and authors of this book. Their principal goal in Hepatic Tumors in Children is to provide the reader with a complete update on this complex and rapidly evolving field. All aspects of an impressive success story are covered, disclosing how the outcome of a previously devastating disease has been so dramatically improved. This book will prove essential reading for all who are involved in the care of children with liver tumors.