Cancer in children.

Abstract

Cancer is an uncommon disease in children. The majority of children who develop a malignancy are under the age of 5 years with the commonest tumours being those of the bone marrow, lymphoid systems and central nervous system. Solid tumours in children are almost always sarcomas. Tumours of epithelial origin (or carcinomas) are exceedingly rare. The cause of the various paediatric cancers is largely unknown, and preventive measures are therefore unavailable to combat them. Despite this, there have been significant gains made in the past 20 years, such that 60% of all children who present with a malignancy in the 1990s can expect to be cured.