What Causes Cancer in Children

 HOW TO PREVENT CHILDHOOD CANCER

What are the risks?

A risk factor is something that raises your likelihood of developing cancer. Even if you have a risk factor, cancer is not guaranteed to strike.

Do we understand the origins of childhood cancer?

Most children's malignancies are not curable and have unknown etiology. It's unclear what causes childhood cancer risk factors. This is because there are numerous different forms of these tumors, which are rare. This makes studying these cancers challenging.

Sometimes parents of cancer patients believe that whatever they did—or didn't do—was to blame for their child's illness. No one should hold the blame because we don't know what causes or how to avoid the majority of children's malignancies.

Although there are a few lifestyle modifications that can help lower the likelihood that adults will acquire cancer. The majority of children's malignancies don't seem to be preventable in any way.

“Cancer is not contagious. Your child cannot spread the illness to their siblings or other students at their school, and neither can you. Childhood cancer is diagnosed in two children from the same household is improbable”.

Uncertainty surrounds the causes of childhood cancer risk factors. This is because there are many different forms of this rare group of tumors. They are therefore challenging to investigate researchers.

Certain established risk factors can raise a child's chance of developing cancer. Examples are provided in the list below.

It's crucial to remember that none of these have an impact on the majority of cancer-stricken kids. And a lot of kids who are exposed to these risk factors won't go on to get cancer.

Known risk indicators

These consist of:

1. Physical ailments
2. Issues with embryonic development
3. Getting infections
4. Radioactive contamination
5. Prior cancer therapies

Health problems

A child's chance of developing certain malignancies might be increased by certain situations.

For instance, leukemia is 10–20 times more common in children with Down's syndrome than in normal children. Open a glossary item even in children with Down's syndrome, leukemia is still extremely infrequent.

Genetics

The eye cancer retinoblastoma is extremely uncommon. An alteration (mutation) in the retinoblastoma gene, also known as the RB1 gene, is present in certain newborns. They might have acquired the gene from one of their parents as a result. Or possibly because this gene underwent a change very early on in the fetus's development. Retinoblastoma is the most common cancer in kids who have an RB1 gene mutation. About 40 out of every 100 children with retinoblastoma that are diagnosed (about 40%) have the inheritable kind. This frequently impacts both eyes (bilateral).

There may be a hereditary connection between several other pediatric cancers, including Wilms' tumor (kidney cancer). But unlike retinoblastoma, the connection is less obvious.

Complications with development in the womb

Some juvenile malignancies, such as retinoblastomas and Wilm's tumors, develop while the kid is still inside their mother.

when a fetus is developing in the womb Many human components, including the kidneys and eyes, start to grow extremely early on, according to a vocabulary item. Sometimes something goes wrong, and some of the cells that ought to have evolved (matured) into cells that form a portion of the body don't. Instead, they continue to exist as extremely early (immature) cells.

Usually, these immature cells don't create any issues and develop on their own by the time the child is 3 or 4 years old. But if they don't, they could start to swell uncontrollably and turn into a malignant tumors.

Exposure to diseases

Infections with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) are frequent in young children. Typically, it has no symptoms. However, in adolescents and young adults, it can result in glandular fever (infectious mononucleosis). Although glandular fever can be quite uncomfortable, it typically goes away within a few weeks and doesn't necessarily portend the development of cancer. A person who contracts EBV becomes a lifelong carrier, yet the virus typically has no symptoms at all.

Occasionally, EBV infection can play a role in the emergence of malignancies including Hodgkin lymphoma and Burkitt's lymphoma.

Most people catch EBV as children and remain infected for life without ever exhibiting any symptoms. There is currently nothing you can do to prevent you or your child from becoming infected with EBV due to how widespread it is.

Radiation exposure

Radiotherapy is a possible component of cancer treatment. Ionizing radiation is the kind of radiation that is used in it. A slightly higher chance of subsequently acquiring another type of cancer exists for children who receive radiotherapy for cancer. However, the danger is negligible in comparison to the potential harm to their health if radiotherapy was not used to treat the primary malignancy.

A form of ionizing radiation, radon gas is a naturally radioactive gas. Outdoors, it is present in the air at a low level, but indoors, it can occasionally reach significant quantities. Since it is a natural gas, it is challenging for us to regulate how much of it we are exposed to. Overall, research has only hinted at a tenuous connection between indoor radon gas levels and the incidence of juvenile leukemia.

Emerging cancer treatments

Cancer risks, including those for acute leukemia, can rise as a result of prior chemotherapy treatment. But in kids and adults, this usually happens much later.