Most Common Pediatric Cancer

The most common pediatric cancers are those that occur in children under the age of 14. The cancers that occur in children are different from those that occur in adults. The most common pediatric cancer are as follows.

This is the most common pediatric cancer. This is the cancer of the bone marrow and the blood. This cancer makes the bone marrow produce a lot of red blood cells. This cancer accounts for about 34% of the pediatric cancers. Among the bone marrow cancer and cancer of the blood there are some specific cancers which are more common that the others. The lymphocytic leukemia is the most common. Leukemia causes the patient develop painful joints, bleeding, weight loss, general body weakness among other severe symptoms.

These are the second most common pediatric cancers. They account for about 27% of the cancer affecting children. These types of cancer mostly manifest itself in form of a tumor. There are many kinds of brain and nervous system cancers. These are treated according to the manner in which they occurred. The outlook of these cancers is different and so is the prognosis. Most children develop brain tumors, in the lower parts of the brain. These tumors will often cause headaches nausea and blurred vision.

The third most common pediatric cancer is neuroblastoma. This is a form of cancer that develops is the fetuses and embryos. They continue growing even after the child is born. It accounts for about 7% of the pediatric cancers. This cancer starts anywhere in the body of the child but mostly will start in abdomen. This cancer causes pain and fever in the children.

The other most common pediatric cancer is lymphoma. This is cancer of the lymphocytes. These are cells found in the immune system. The cell will increase and concentrate in the lymph nodes. However the cancerous cells can also move to the bone marrow and at the latter stages to other organs. This cancer will manifest itself in the symptoms as just the other cancers but the lymph will be swollen.

Rhabdomyosarcoma is the cancer of the skeletal muscles. These are found in the neck, belly abdomen, pelvis or the limbs. This is a soft tissue type of cancer. It causes pain, swelling and lumps on the muscles.

The fourth most common pediatric cancer is Wilms tumor. This is cancer of the kidney. It usually starts in one kidney but also develop in both kidneys. This cancer has been observed to affect children of about 3 and 4 years old. In children above 6 years this cancer is rare. This kind of cancer accounts for 5 % of the pediatric cancers.

Retinoblasta and bone marrows are the other most common pediatric cancer though they occur account for lesser cases that the top 4 cancers.

These pediatric cancers should be diagnosed early in their development for full recovery. If a certain pediatric cancer is common in a family lineage, the children in that family should be regularly tested for the earliest diagnosis possible. Most of the common pediatric cancers are treatable at centers that specialize in pediatric oncology.