Leukemia: From a Childs Point of View Essay

Leukemia is “a malignant progressive disease in which the bone marrow and other blood-forming organs produce increased numbers of immature or abnormal leukocytes. These suppress the production of normal blood cells, leading to anemia and other symptoms.”An estimated combined total of 162,020 people in the U.S. are expected to be diagnosed with leukemia, 60,192 people die, 14% live in remission and my father is just another statistic. When I was nine years old, my father was diagnosed with Leukemia, an illness that at the time I did not understand. This left my mother raising two kids and working two jobs to make ends meet. Throughout this time of never ending hospital visits, I experienced the kindness and care provided to us by my father’s doctors - something that until this day I will never forget.

According to the American Cancer Society, there are sixteen major types of childhood cancers and over 100 subtypes. Leukemia and Lymphoma cancer are the most common cancers that children get at a young age. Everyday forty-six kids are diagnose with childhood cancer and seven children die every day. Childhood cancer kills more kids than Cystic Fibrosis, AIDS, and asthma combined! The worst part about childhood cancer is that the treatment side affects can last a lifetime for these kids. People do not understand that childhood cancer only gets a small percentage of the budget for all cancers. National Cancer Institute budget is around $4.9 billion and only 4% of that sum goes towards childhood cancer.

With this is a copy of my justification report on the subject of funding and support of research in pediatric cancer and assisting poor parents of children suffering from cancer. This statement is a review of my findings from the most recent year of working in X Cancer Specialty Center, and a separate research that other researchers have conducted outside the center. This paper will be useful in justifying the funding of extensive research in pediatric cancer, and the necessity to assist parents of the cancer patients to meet medical costs. I have completed this report at no cost to the organization, and I carried out and completed this research during off hours.

According to the American Cancer Society (2013) stated, “Leukemia is a cancer that starts in early blood-forming cells” (American Cancer Society, 2013). “Most often, leukemia is a cancer of the white blood cells, but some leukemias start in other blood cell types” (American Cancer Society, 2013). “Any of the cells from the bone marrow can turn into a leukemia cell” (American Cancer Society, 2013). According to the American Cancer Society (2013) stated, “Once this change takes place, the leukemia cells don’t go through the normal process of maturing” (American Cancer Society, 2013). There are changes that leukemia cells can quickly reproduce themselves and not die when they are suppose too (American Cancer Society, 2013). “They survive and build up in the bone marrow, crowding out normal cells” (American Cancer Society, 2013). “In most cases, the leukemia cells spill into the bloodstream fairly quickly” (American Cancer Society, 2013). “Almost all childhood leukemia is acute leukemias” (American Cancer Society, 2013).

Leukemia is cancerous disease that starts in blood-forming tissue such as the bone marrow and causes large numbers of blood cells to be produced and enter the blood-stream (National Cancer Institute, 2008, para. 1). It is one of many complicated cancer diseases that affect all ages and have very negative outcomes if not treated properly, and on time. Within the disease are several different types that affect according to how quickly the disease develops and attacks the body. It could be classified as chronic leukemia, which has a slow progress of getting worse or acute leukemia which usually gets worse quickly. The types of leukemia also can be grouped based on the white blood cell that is affected (National Cancer Institute , 2008, p. 1).

The importance behind this health issue is that major advances in medicine haven’t significantly improved survivor rates nor have medical advances reduced the number of cancer cases per year in children under 18 years of age (Curtin, Minino, Anderson, 2016).“Congressman McCaul is a father of five and knows that every parent’s worst nightmare is their children receiving a life-threatening cancer diagnosis. Growing up, his childhood best friend lost his battle to cancer. It wasn’t fair then and it isn’t fair now. Congressman McCaul founded the Childhood Cancer

Thesis/argument statement OR main idea statement: Cancer affects children and their families in many ways.

In researching this subject I was able to interview a parent, Johari Evans, of a six year old boy, Rodney Burton III, who is suffering from Hodgkin 's Lymphoma. Ms. Evans shared with me some of the coping tools she used in hope that others can benefit when faced with a similar situation. We talked about how having cancer affects a child and the family in their everyday lives. Ms. Evans expressed how important it is to be able to access informational sites, self-help manuals and hospital based workshops to learn coping skills and positive ways of dealing with such sadness. She also helped me understand emotional mindset of a parent and how she is able to help both of her children cope with the situation.

Out of 100,000 children 32.1 cancer diagnoses occur in the age group 0-14, 138.6 occur in the 15-39 age group, and 2,053.8 occur in 40 and older (cancer.gov). Pediatric cancer, being so rare, makes research and development hard to fund because there are not many eligible participants for each specific trial. This creates a “Catch 22” by having a good societal support system, yet not having enough “return-on-investment” (Milne). Pediatric cancer is the leading cause of death in children after accidents, however the amount of deaths has lower drastically in recent years. The mortality rate as a whole has decreased by fifty percent in the last thirty years, however for patients with cancers other than lymphoma or leukemia the mortality rate has not declined since 1996 (Analysis of the National Cancer Institute’s Investment). Lymphoma and leukemia are the most common cancers that children are diagnosed with, but there are many more that can occur that need new research in order to discover ways to decrease the current mortality rate. In 1960 it was discovered that leukemia could be treated by “combination chemotherapy and dose intensity” this brought the curability up from 10% before this discovery to 80% by the 1990s (Norris and Adamson). Although this treatment has been successful for leukemia patients, the most common of childhood cancers, it is not as successful with other types of cancer. There are currently clinical trials that take place to begin trying to find treatments or cure for pediatric cancer, however because of lack of funding many of the trials do not continue or never really take off. Due to the lack of funding and efforts put forth into research for pediatric cancer more the 2,500 children die in America every year (thetruth365.org). Children diagnosed with cancer deserve more work to be put into finding a cure so they can go on to live long, happy

After, the doctor gives further treatments to help prevent the return of the signs and symptoms of the disease after an improvement. Most of patient with acute forms of leukemia can be cured today. It is one of the most curable forms of cancer. Chronic leukemia is detected through a routine blood test before symptoms appear. With this people may not need treatment right away if they are not having symptoms yet, the doctors monitor the disease until treatment is needed. Most of the time it cannot be cured, but it can be controlled.

As established in the National Cancer Institute, “Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide for children and adolescents in America, accounting for more than 91,250 children that lose their lives to this disease” (National Cancer Institute). Cancer is not considered a terminal illness, but more of a chronic illness because of the intense treatment that the individual has to endure. As a result of this treatment the chances of survival for children suffering from pediatric cancer has increased around 80 percent. The increment in the survival rate has made it possible for many parents to not have to go through the acceptance that they are about to lose their child to a terminal illness, but have coping strategies that will make them adapt to the fear of the reoccurrence of that illness. This illness has a great impact on the patient as well as the family because not only do they have to adapt to this illness physically, but also mentally. Research has shown that there are both short term and long term effects that come into effect when the child is both in treatment and also years after the treatment. The type of cancers that these adolescents have to endure range from leukemia, brain tumors and other cancerous tumors that have appeared in recent medical studies. These tumors can either be benignant, an acute case that is non-cancerous or malignant, a cancerous case that will need intense treatment over an extended period of time.While many would say there is more of a

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) is slow-progressing or “chronic”, cancer of the blood and bone marrow. CLL is the second most common leukemia in adults and one of the four primary types of leukemia. Certain risk factors have been identified including age, race, sex, family history of blood and bone marrow cancers and chemical exposure. Most people diagnosed with CLL are white males over the age of 60. Occurrence increases with age and a marked increase after 60. Herbicides, insecticides and Agent Orange used in the Vietnam War have shown to increase the risk of developing CLL. There are approximately 15,000 new cases diagnosed each year.

Leukemia is something that we hear about a lot. I believe that people do not understand exactly what leukemia is and how dangerous it can be, I chose this topic to try to help them understand. In this paper I will explain what leukemia is and what treatments you can choose from to treat the cancer.

There are two main and four specific types of leukemia. The two main types are acute leukemia, which is fast growing, and chronic leukemia, which is slow growing. The four specific types of leukemia are chronic lymphocytic (CLL), acute lymphocytic (ALL), chronic myelogenous (CML), and acute myelogenous (AML) that were discovered in 1913. About three quarters of children diagnosed with leukemia have acute lymphocytic which peaks as early as two to four years old. This cancer kills more children that are two or fifteen than anything else. To determine whether the cancer will be chronic or acute is to look at the cell lineage. The blood cell that becomes cancerous explains what type of leukemia it is. Depending on if the white cells, the red blood cells, or the platelets can determine exactly which leukemia it is. “Adults can get either type; children with leukemia most often have an acute type” (Leukemia: MedlinePlus). For a child to get a chronic leukemia is very rare. Now it is known that the cancer starts in the bone marrow, which is where blood cells are formed. Leukemia causes the body to create too many abnormal cells and these abnormal white cells cannot fight infection and also lessen the amount of red cells and platelets. Some of the risk factors of this cancer are large doses of ionizing radiation, being exposed to benzene for a long period of time, rare viruses, genetic disorders, and

There are two types of leukemia in children; acute and chronic. Acute is fast growing leukemia. Within acute leukemia are three categories: acute lymphocytic (lymphoblastic) leukemia (ALL), acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), and hybrid or mixed lineage leukemia. Acute lymphocytic (lymphoblastic) leukemia (ALL) is the most common type of childhood leukemia and develop from early forms of lymphocytes, also known as white blood cells. Specifically, three out of four childhood leukemias are ALL (About Childhood Leukemia). Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) starts from the myeloid cells that create blood forming cells such as white blood cells (except for lymphocytes), red blood cells, and platelets (About Childhood Leukemia). Hybrid or mixed lineage leukemia are rare forms of childhood leukemia, but can be treated like ALL and AML. On the other end of the spectrum is chronic, or slow growing, leukemia. Chronic leukemia is difficult to treat and are more commonly found in adults than children. There are two types of chronic leukemia: chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is not commonly