Christiana Ogunbote
Head of Research, Children with Cancer UK
In the UK, 12 children and young people will be diagnosed with cancer every day with two of those young patients not surviving.
Cancer is caused by genetic changes within a cell that divides and causes uncontrollable growth.
Symptoms of childhood cancer can present in a variety of ways with the most common being sudden changes to vision, excessive bruising, headaches with early morning sickness and severe pain in joints. There are 12 main diagnostic groups, with leukaemia accounting for 30% of diagnoses, brain and spinal tumours for 20% and lymphomas for 11%.
Only 2% of national cancer research
funding is spent on children.
Childhood cancer vs adult cancer
Treatment options for adults and children, at times, share similarities. With some exceptions, children tend to respond better because it can be more intense, and they generally have fewer pre-existing health issues. However, due to their growing bodies, it can be expected that two in three childhood cancer survivors will go on to experience long-term side effects from treatment such as heart failure, mobility issues, deafness, growth issues and infertility. Only 2% of national cancer research funding is spent on children.
Treatment innovations: CAR-T
Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (CAR-T) — a form of immunotherapy — is a relatively new treatment which has revolutionised care for children. As a targeted therapy, immunotherapy teaches the immune system to recognise and fight cancerous cells by itself, reducing the need for exposure to toxic treatments. Pioneering research, funded by Children with Cancer UK, demonstrated that by genetically modifying immune cells and injecting them back into the immune system, children were in improved clinical remission in comparison to chemotherapy treatment.
Today, experts are improving on this immunotherapy discovery. They hope to remove the difficulty for young children who have already gone through gruelling treatments by offering a less harsh process. They hope to be ready for clinical trials in three years.
Looking forwards
Fifty years ago, 75% of children with cancer died; today, more than 84% of children diagnosed with cancer survive their disease for five years or more.
Unfortunately, cancer remains one of the leading causes of death for under-15s which is why researchers and charities continue to work for higher survival rates, identification of genetic causes and limiting the number of long-term side effects for young patients.
