Childhood Cancer Diagnosis - What Next?

There you stand, either in the pediatrician's office or the emergency room, receiving the most horrific news imaginable that being the news that your child has a life threatening disease.
As most doctors do they tell you they are going to give you and your family a moment to digest what you have just been told. As you then look upon your child, who is looking up at you, confused and scared, you are hit with a barrage of questions. Why, how, and what next?

After the doctors have concluded the seemingly endless barrage of tests on your child, he/she and the rest of the medical staff give you the infamous "road map." This road map is supposed to tell you how your child will be treated depending on their disease and the severity of said disease. Often this road map leaves you with more questions than answers.

Then your child is finally released from the hospital and sent home to await your next visit to the surgical room, infusion center, and clinic for labs or wherever your chemotherapy and/or radiation treatments are conducted. It is this down time that a familiar question comes floating back into your mind.... What next?

What next? Information gathering, entrust your child to the doctor, pray to God? It is imperative to learn as much about your child's illness as possible. Learn the affects, side effects, pros and cons of each drug used. Do not be afraid to question everything the medical staff is doing. If it doesn't make sense, ask for explanations, clarification and reconfirm with other medical staff. Do not overlook your parental instincts after all, you know your child the best and do not allow someone else to tell you otherwise. At first they may try to back you down or appease you and may even try to confuse you with medical jargon, but soon they will realize that you are not the kind of parent that sits on the sidelines and gives the doctors carte blanche in the faith and trust department. It is only through this vigilance that your child will receive the best treatment possible. You must be your child's patient advocate.

Childhood Cancer Diagnosis - What Next?
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I Am Diagnosed With Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), Will I Live?

Acute Myeloid Leukemia is a frequent cancer of the blood cells. It's frequency increases with the increasing of age. Before treatment existed this type of cancer was totally mortal, and with the therapy that is used nowadays, its survival rate is bigger, up to 90 % in case of Acute promyelocitic leukemia. It is thought that one of the main causes of this Leukemia, is the BENZENE exposure.
So, lets start with the basics. As of the FAB classification, your disease can be classified in 8 groups, from AML-M0 to AML-M7.

The worst prognosis is AML-M0, and the best prognosis is AML-M3.
As of the WHO classification that is more recent and more concise, a person can have:
Leukemia from chromosomal trans-location
Leukemia from myelodisplasia
Leukemia from treatment
Leukemia of unknown origin
Of this 4 cases, the leukemia from treatment may have the best prognosis.
Treatment:
If you suffer from AML-M3 (Acute promyelocitic leukemia), the treatment of choice will be ATRA (All trans retinoic acid). The survival rate will be great, up to 90% after 5 years.
If you suffer from all other forms, the treatment is as follows:
One cycle of INDUCTION: You use 3 days of anthracyclines, and 7 days of ARA-C.
One cycle of CONSOLIDATION: In the start of this phase, the cancer cells will be really low. If this second cycle is successful, you will be safe, no more cancer in your body. But the success of this phase depends on the prognostic factors of your leukemia.
First of all, your age. The older you are (over 70), the more difficult will be. But you still have the possibility to survive. Other prognostic factors are the chromosomal trans-locations that are present in your genotype.
Good Prognosis: t(8;21), t(15;17), inv(16)
Intermediate Prognosis: Normal, +8, +21, +22, del(7q), del(9q), Abnormal 11q23, all other structural or numerical changes
Bad Prognosis: -5, -7, del(5q), Abnormal 3q, Complex cytogenetics
Will YOU Live?
Well, you have to fight! It's a battle that you have just started, but you have to be strong, physically and mentally. Be very collaborative with your physician, and take your pills very regularly. The chances to survive after 5 years are up to 70 % in general. YOU HAVE TO BE IN THAT 70 %!

I Am Diagnosed With Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), Will I Live?
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Chemotherapy and Bloodletting

The goal of chemotherapy is to kill part of a cancer patient's body without killing the patient. It involves lethal drugs that do serious damage, hence the side effects. The drugs work by damaging the RNA or DNA that controls cell division. If cells are unable to divide, they die. Healthy cells grow back; hopefully the cancer cells won't.

Pharmaceuticals are risky business. Having them prescribed and monitored by a doctor is a safeguard, but it doesn't make them safe. In her book, Another Day in the Frontal Lobe, neurosurgeon Katrina Firkin notes that,

Anything strong enough to help you is strong enough to hurt you. No treatment, at least no worthwhile treatment, comes without risk. Even natural supplements, if you take unnaturally large amounts, can have untoward effects... There are plenty of medications that work wonders without us having a clear idea as to how or why they work. To me, that means there are probably other things those drugs are doing that we may not expect. It would be unlikely for a drug to have one and only one effect on the body. That's not how the body works. One physiological mechanism can mediate numerous different functions. One natural chemical, blocked or enhanced by a certain drug, may have dozens of different targets. Those targets are probably not all figured out yet.

It's a Faustian bargain, but I've adopted Dr. Firkin's approach, "I'll take a medication when I need it, when the time comes, if the benefits clearly outweigh the risks. But I won't expect to get something for nothing."

Bloodletting
A hundred years from now chemotherapy may be looked back upon with the same aversion we have to bloodletting today as a barbarous rite of pre-enlightened medicine. For almost 2,000 years sincere physicians drained copious amounts of the vital fluid to relieve their patients of "bad blood."
The practice was supported by the best scientific minds of the time and based on observation of the body itself, specifically menstruation. None other than the father of medicine, Hippocrates-who gave us the word "cancer"-believed menstruation purged women of bad humors. His most famous student, Galen, began physician-initiated bloodletting in the second century.
Bloodletting was once used to treat cancer, along with everything else from cholera to diabetes, herpes to leprosy, plague to pneumonia, and scurvy to smallpox. The earliest recorded cancer treatment comes from the Egyptians, who used a "fire drill" to cauterize tumors. Medical science lurches forward by trial and error.

Even great advances sometimes have unforeseen consequences. A popular theory regarding how AIDS entered the human population posits that it came from chimps whose organs and fluids were used in culturing a strand of oral polio vaccine used in the Congo, the epicenter of the pandemic.
Never mind inadvertent danger, modern chemo causes lots of collateral damage. It is a shotgun that indiscriminately kills both terrorists and hostages. But for many forms of cancer, it's the best weapon we have right now.
Chemo is one of those things in life for which a stunt double would be absolutely great. Other experiences where a stand-in would be wonderful are:

• childbirth
• IRS audits
• root canals
• prostate exams
• (add your least favorite activity here)

Chemotherapy and Bloodletting
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Lymphoma - What Is It?

lAbout half of all cancers of the blood fall into the category of lymphoma. This is a cancer of the lymphatic cells of the body, which are a major part of the body's immune system. Leukemia, another cancer of the blood system which can appear in lymphatic cells, is related to, but distinct from lymphoma in a couple of ways. Leukemia is actually a range of disorders that generally effect either the circulating blood cells or the bone marrow where they are produced. It results in an overproduction of blood cells or the production of cells that are malformed.

Lymphoma is different. It usually appears as a tumor, an enlargement or agglomeration of cells that takes on a solid mass. These tumors may develop variously, but the lymph nodes are a common site. As mentioned before, lymphoma tumors may develop variously, leading to a somewhat confusing system of classification for the disease. In the main, however, there are two types: Hodgkin's lymphoma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Hodgkin's lymphoma is so named because it was discovered by Thomas Hodgkin in the 1830s. It is a cancer of the lymphatic system in which malignant cells gradually but steadily spread throughout the lymph system. They move methodically from lymph node to lymph node, creating tumorous masses. Treatment consists of chemotherapy, in general, but this depends on the patient's age, the stage of the cancer, and how healthy they otherwise are.

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is less straight-forward when it comes to classification. There have been a few different attempts to build a consistent taxonomy of the cancer, each one superseded by a newer system. The current one, developed by the World Health Organization, is based on the type of cell that is effected. For example, whether it is a T cell or a B cell (these are both parts of the immune system).
This is not mere scientific squabbling. The type of cancer present can mean large differences in treatment applied to the patient. Some types of lymphoma are so passive they do not pose much risk to the patient, even if left undisturbed by medicine. Other types spread with a relentless aggressiveness that quickly results in death. Both types of lymphoma have similar symptoms: mysterious fevers, sweating or chills at night, unexplainable fatigue. These are all vague ailments that share their lack of acuteness with leukemia. A trip to the doctor after extended periods of experiencing symptoms is usually what alerts people to their condition.

The causes of lymphoma are somewhat mysterious, though there is some connection with diseases of the immune system. If you have suffered from HIV or Epstein-Barr virus, you are at an increased risk of developing lymphoma. There are numerous other risk markers including age, gender, family history, and environment. It seems that the best one can do is try to lead a healthy lifestyle, and avoid mostly preventable infections such as HIV. Otherwise, there is little one can actively do to avoid this illness short of having good luck.

Lymphoma - What Is It?
Article Source: EzineArticles.com