Battling Childhood Cancer
Denitra Bowdrey
COM/172
March 16, 2015
Lisa Acerbo

There are many children around the world whose life is affected by cancer. It is a deadly disease that people struggle with every day. Cancer can grow progressively very quickly, and also be deadly. In even worse cases having to battle cancer at the same time as your child, is the situation for some; but very rare. Can you imagine? But there is hope, luckily we have scientist that are working to cure this disease someday. The battle for the fight to cure cancer will never end. For some, they might think the diagnosis of cancer is their death sentence; which isn't true. Working in the medical field and living here in Memphis, TN home of St. Jude's Children Hospital is an honor. Being able to interact with different families and hear different stories is mind blowing to see what they have to deal with. However, after meeting different cancer patients, children seems to have the most hope and are the happier than adults in most cases. I think adults let the disease take charge, where on the other hand you have children that are living every day like it's their last not letting the disease take control. Cancer is a very mysterious disease that comes in many different forms. There is still no cure for Cancer as of today, but there are treatments. Cancer changes lives every day, limiting physical abilities and activities. Saying that, cancer that occur in children is seen different from those in adults. Survival rates for most childhood cancers vary widely across cancer types. Childhood cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death among children and adolescents (ages 1 to 19) in the United States, and the second leading cause of death in children (after accidents). Childhood cancer rates have been rising slightly for the past few decades, and the causes of childhood cancer are not well understood. About 10,380 children in the United States will be with cancer this year alone. About 1,250 children younger than 15 years old are expected to die from cancer in 2015.
It's a question probably thousands of us often ask , "what is cancer." Cancer is a disease caused by an uncontrolled division of abnormal cell in a part of the body, and it consist of malignant growth or tumors resulting from those abnormal cells. Some cancers can eventually spread to other tissues, which is called metastasis. Cancer can affect the body systems, such as blood circulation, lymphatic and immune systems, and the hormone system. There are five main cancer disease groups. Cancers are divided into groups according to the type of cell they start from. They include carcinomas, lymphomas, leukemia, brain tumors, and sarcomas. Staging and grading gives an idea of how quickly a cancer may grow and which treatments might work best. The stage of cancer means how big the cancer is and whether it has spread. Grading looks at how abnormal the cells have gotten. Although cancer dates back in the late 19th century, it’s still present, the first cause of cancer was discovered by a British surgeon named Percivall Pott. The thought of cancer can terrify anyone, especially those who are least suspected; kids, for instance. Not many kids get diagnosed with cancer very often, but for those that are diagnosed, it can be either treated or cured. There are 100 different types of cancer, but there are a few that mainly affects kids. The types of cancer found most often in children up to 15 years old are leukemia, brain and central nervous system, lymphoma, soft tissue sarcomas, kidney tumors, and cancer of the bones (www.envirohealthpolicy.net). Children thinks cancer can be caused by the simplest things, such as a bump on the head can cause brain cancer, or they think bad people gets cancer; not accurate. Most cancers start due to gene changes that happen during an individual's lifetime. More rarely cancers start due to inherited faulty genes passed down in families