Pediatric Cancer Awareness
According to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, more than 400,000 children and adolescents (0-19 years) worldwide receive a cancer diagnosis each year, including over 15,000 here in the United States (43 every day). The good news is that new treatments developed by cancer researchers and drug companies have greatly reduced side effects from treatment and improved survival rates, with more than 80% of pediatric cancer patients becoming long-term survivors. (Survival rates vary depending on the type of cancer being treated.)
Overall, the incidence of cancer has been slowly declining in the U.S., mirroring the national decline in tobacco smoking in recent years. However, that’s not true of all cancers and all age groups.
Incidences of breast cancer, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, thyroid cancer, and testicular cancer have risen dramatically in adults over the last 50 years.
Environmentally sensitive cancers, induced by exposure to manmade toxic chemicals in the environment, are also on the rise. For example, studies show links between exposure to the widely used herbicide glyphosate and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. And exposure to certain solvents and PFAS (“forever”) chemicals has been linked to kidney cancer, testicular cancer, and other cancers.
Pediatric cancer rates have also been increasing in recent years. The Cancer and Environment Network of Southwestern Pennsylvania* tries to make sense of local statistics:
In seven Southwestern Pennsylvania counties, incidence rates for six types of cancer that have strong links to toxic chemicals (bladder, breast, kidney, lung, leukemia and thyroid) are elevated, sometimes by more than 50% compared with national rates. The statistically significant elevation of childhood cancer (ages 0-19) in Greene and Westmoreland counties are particularly striking, although a non-statistically significant elevation is also observed in Washington county.
“Hmm,” a parent might wonder. “Why are childhood cancer rates and environmentally sensitive cancer rates rising? Are the two related?”
We’ll see if we can identify a potential connection between one type of pediatric cancer and a specific type of environmental exposure tomorrow on The PediaBlog.
The PediaBlog covered Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in previous years here, here, here, and here.
*Dr. Ketyer is co-chair of the Education and Outreach Workgroup at the Cancer and Environment Network of SWPA. You can find more information at https://censwpa.org.
source http://www.thepediablog.com/2022/09/14/pediatric-cancer-awareness/
Comments
Post a Comment