Childhood Cancer Awareness and Drug Development

 

Childhood cancer is a serious illness that affects children. Globally, incidence rates of childhood cancer have risen rapidly due to environmental and genetic factors. Despite this, childhood cancer receives less funding and attention than other forms of cancer. Many people are unaware of the causes of childhood cancer and the research conducted to find a cure. 

One way to raise awareness of childhood cancer is to support organizations focused on childhood cancer research and care. In addition, another way to raise awareness is to support charitable organizations that support the care and research of childhood cancers. Supporting these organizations helps to raise awareness of these diseases and provides financial support for their treatment. In addition, supporting charitable organizations helps to provide survivors with resources after their cancer diagnosis. Supporting these organizations makes a difference in the lives of childhood cancer survivors and their families.

Drug development is currently pipeline has several promising childhood cancer treatments, including vaccines and immunotherapies. Vaccines can prevent or treat some childhood cancers by stimulating the immune system to attack the disease. In addition, immunotherapies can be used to treat some forms of childhood cancer by suppressing or removing immune system cells that cause disease. There are many promising drugs for treating childhood cancers, but many are still in early research phases. If drug development succeeds in treating childhood cancers, many survivors will experience extended life expectancies after their initial treatment.

Further research is needed to extend the lives of childhood cancer survivors and to reduce long term effects of treatment. Studies show that survivors of several types of cancers experience different long-term health effects due to their treatment. For example, survivors of abdominal wall cancers may have trouble swallowing food or breathing when they cough or take deep breaths. Survivors of brain tumors may experience cognitive decline or strokes due to their treatments. In some cases, survivors may experience a combination of long-term health effects due to their treatment choices when they undergo more than one treatment for their condition. It's important for survivors and caregivers to know which long-term effects may occur because of their treatment so they can plan for them accordingly.

Unfortunately, although childhood cancer receives less funding than adult cancers, it receives just as much funding overall. In addition, many believe that underfunding causes more severe side effects when compared with overfunded diseases like breast cancer. Some also believe that drug development is insufficient to treat all forms of cancer, including childhood cancers. Consequently, many believe that underfunding causes more severe side effects than overfunding when it comes to treating childhood cancers. 

Especially important is to know that childhood cancers do not act like adult cancers, they are not the same and must be treated differently. If we look at the reality, we will see that while hundreds of cancer drugs have been developed and approved for adults, the FDA, up to and including 2020 has only approved a total of thirty-four drugs for use in the treatment of childhood cancers. 

However, twenty-eight of those thirty-four drugs were originally approved for adult use only! 

Yes, children will get chemotherapy treatment which was originally developed and approved by FDA for adults. Many of the adult drugs being used for children will cause severe late term side effects. Therefore, more awareness about childhood cancer is needed to increase public funding for the disease.

Furthermore, some people view the emotional trauma experienced by survivors as secondary to their disease and view it as a minor effect that does not justify increased funding or attention from society or healthcare professionals. Although emotional trauma is a serious effect caused by treatment for some children, it is not always present and may not be present in every survivor's case. Since emotional trauma can make surviving less effective it is important for childhood cancer survivors and caregivers to seek emotional support from healthcare professionals if necessary.

In addition, many people believe that increased funding would result in increased long-term care needs since underfunded diseases tend to be more severe than overfunded diseases. They believe this because some children with underfunded diseases have more severe side effects than children with overfunded diseases due to suboptimal treatments. Consequently, in some cases causing severe side effects may outweigh receiving additional funding since treatments may be ineffective or too risky for children with underfunded conditions.

Overall, increasing public awareness about childhood cancer increases drug development and reduces long-term care needs caused by underfunding. However, there are counterarguments regarding how much funding is necessary and how effective drug development will be in treating the disease's causes and side effects in different cases. Increasing public awareness about childhood cancer can help facilitate drug development by raising funds for research and supporting charitable organizations focused on curbing the disease's prevalence in society. However, increasing public awareness about childhood cancer can also overburden healthcare systems if not balanced by increased long-term care needs from underfunded diseases like this one if insufficient funds are available for treatments that are effective enough overall.

Nothing is more devastating than to be being helplessly seeing the own child suffering cancer.

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