Feb 15 is International Childhood Cancer Day. 

It took the family of seven-year-old Lipi Mandal, daughter of a rickshaw-puller, three months to detect that her high fever, loss of appetite and stomach ache was due to blood cancer. Till then she and her father, a native of Malda in West Bengal now living in Noida near Delhi, were being made to run around by private doctors who thought that the girl was suffering from anaemia. The ordeal of the lower kindergarten student, say oncologists and volunteers, is a reflection of the common problem in India — the late diagnosis of childhood cancer.

‘Nearly 70-80 children in India die of cancer each year, largely due to late detection, lack of awareness, high cost of treatment and insufficient treatment and supportive care,’ Manoj Kumar Gujela, senior programme officer of NGO Cankids Kidscan which is supporting Lipi, told IANS.Lipi’s father Logen Mandal blamed the local private doctors for misleading him on her ailment.
‘She was running high fever for more than three weeks, her appetite had dropped and her weight had started decreasing,’ said Mandal, describing the early symptoms.

Mandal said the private doctors recommended a blood test and blood transfusion after diagnosing anaemia. ‘She underwent blood transfusions three times, but her condition did not improve. We finally got her checked at a hospital in Delhi which referred us to the cancer department in AIIMS.’ 

Experts say the first tip they give to people is not to ignore high, persistent fever, weight loss and any form of pain in the body, as these could prove to be early signs of cancer. ‘In case of high grade fever among kids that takes time to subside and weight loss, a medical practitioner should get alarmed and suggest cancer investigations,’ said Gujela.

Doctor Ruchira Misra, consultant paediatric oncology, Medanta Cancer Institute, stressed the need for early detection of cancer, and said: ‘Hiding from diagnosis does not cure cancer. It is the awareness of the disease and the search for appropriate treatment that can cure these malignancies.’ ‘There is a big need to spread awareness about how to recognise the symptoms and who to approach when diagnosed with cancer,’ Misra told IANS.

‘People should not take lumps lightly and these should be investigated as much as possible. In many cases, precious time is lost by people who run around searching for information on cures for cancer,’ she said. Gujela said there could be a uniform guideline for detection of cancer among kids but a medical practitioner should always be suspicious about lumps, unexplained discomfort in patients or difficult-to-cure ailments. 

‘Our experience of working with 15,000 children shows that in most cases a cancer-hit child’s first line of medical consultation revolves around quacks and untrained professionals. This wastes a lot of time and resources,’ he said. This is what happened in the case of Lipi, who now attends chemotherapy sessions at AIIMS.

The toddler’s father said the private doctors whom he consulted before coming to AIIMS suggested a blood test and thereafter seemed more keen on transfusing blood into her and charging heavily for it. Beena Verma, whose 14-year-old son Tanuj survived blood cancer eight years ago, has a similar tale to tell.

‘My son’s paralysis in the lower limbs was found by a private hospital to be linked to appendicitis. After an operation for the ailment, the bleeding from his stitches did not stop for many days. Only then did investigations reveal that he was suffering from blood cancer,’ Verma told IANS.

In her son’s case also, cancer was detected late. By the time the killer disease was diagnosed, the east Delhi resident had already spent over Rs.50,000 on her son’s treatment and investigations.  According to a 2009 article in Indian Journal of Cancer, childhood cancer contributes to less than 5 percent of the total cancer burden in India, with approximately 45,000 children diagnosed with cancer every year. In developed countries, 80 percent of the children with cancer are cured. Health ministry figures show that just about 60 percent of children with cancer manage to survive in India.

Source: IANS

“The bone tumour involved nearly all of his jaw bone, lower lip, chin, neck skin, tongue and both cheeks, approximately the lower third of the face and upper half of his neck,” said senior study author Tamer A. Ghanem. He co-authored the study with Francis Hall, Robert Deeb and Linda Hsu, all from Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit. ”We had to think outside the box to not only safely remove the tumour, but to allow for optimum functional outcome,” added Ghanem, also director of the Head and Neck Oncology and Microvascular Surgery Division at Henry Ford. 

The case involves a 21-year-old African-American male with a history of osteosarcoma, the eighth most common childhood cancer. It affects five million patients under 20 years and about 500 adults aged 15-30 years annually in the US, according to a Henry Ford statement. The patient’s osteosarcoma spread to his jaw bone about three years after the initial diagnosis. The facial tumour soon grew to nearly 10 pounds of tissue and bone, making it difficult for him to speak and eat. The patient required a feeding tube. Only three months after the surgery, the patient was able to talk and eat without assistance.

Earlier, the patient underwent multiple treatments including mandible resection, radiation, chemotherapy and cryosurgery at another institution. All treatments were unsuccessful. Ghanem and Hall, devised a plan that would not only surgically remove the tumour and oral tongue, but rebuild the lower third of the patient’s face – all during a 20-hour surgical procedure. The surgeons performed a near total mandibulectomy (surgical removal of the bone from the lower jaw), and removal of the tongue, mucous membrane from the inside of both cheeks and lower lip. Ghanem performed the complex reconstruction of the face and jaw.

Ghanem will present this unique case at the poster session for the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery annual meeting in Washington DC.

Source: IANS

Over 40,000 cases of childhood cancers are reported in the country every year. The common cancers among children are acute lymphoblastic leukemia or blood cancer, germ cell tumour, brain tumour and liver and kidney cancer, among others. ”We need to take note of early symptoms. You should not ignore the early signs for an early diagnosis,” said cancer specialist Meenu Walia.

Experts insist that preventive checkups should be mandatory in the country so that cancer can be detected at an early stage and can be cured. The doctors urged to spread awareness about childhood cancers for timely detection and treatment as increasing prevalence of cancer among children is becoming a cause of great concern.

Source: IANS

Cankids… KidsCan is an organisation working for children who suffer from cancer. The organisation provides financial and emotional support to families from weaker sections. Magic Bus works on personality development of children from slum areas through various team sports. ”During the ride, we had to face many problems but here, amongst these kids, I feel as if we can cycle our way back to Mumbai. Honestly, I don’t feel any fatigue, their enthusiasm is infectious,” Goswami claimed. 

“Today’s events brought down the curtain on our month-long festivities. In fact, we started awareness events as early as Feb 11,” Poonam Bagai, President, Cankids… KidsCan, told IANS. Globally, Feb 15 is celebrated as World Childhood Cancer Day. ”We generally don’t do awareness programmes and concentrate on providing medical aid to these kids, so it was like a festival for us,” she added. 

The children also enjoyed their day out to the fullest. While the children from Magic Bus performed a street-play highlighting the issues faced by girls of the weaker sections of society, the others focused on games and ice creams. But the signs of stress showed in the parents who had accompanied the children. For Dharambir Yadav, a small farmer from Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, accepting his son’s leukemia has been tough.  ”I don’t know what happened. He just fell ill with fever and the doctors told us he had cancer. Then, even though we got a blood transfusion in Agra, we were told to go to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS),” Yadav told IANS. 

Source: IANS