Children With Cancer
Cancer is a disease that claims millions of lives each year, despite many medical interventions available. A research paper on children with cancer should explore the following facts about childhood cancer:
- Discuss living with childhood cancer
- Briefly examine general care and treatment for children with cancer.
- Demonstrate that although children with cancer face many challenges and difficulties, medical advances have helped to improve biological and emotional care for children as well as the chances for recovery from childhood cancer.
Children With Cancer - Number 1 Killer
Cancer is the number one disease killer of children from one year old through teenage years, with approximately one in every 330 children in the United States developing cancer before the age of nineteen, and the rate of cancer among children increasing. While the primary adult cancers include lung, colon, breast, prostate and pancreas, childhood cancers are mostly the following:
- Leukemia
- Brain Cancer
- Bone Cancer
- The Lymphatic System Cancers
- Tumors of the muscles, kidneys and nervous system
In his essay on living with childhood cancer, an author notes that the "fight to live is the child's endowment to humanity, and the child living with cancer "offers an example of the determination to live fully and well, even against overwhelming odds" . As medical advances have increased the child with cancer's chances for recovery, there has been a shift from preparing from inevitable death in the 1950s and 1960s, to providing the child with the highest possible quality of life.
Dealing with Children With Cancer
For parents, there is no easy way of dealing with a child who has cancer. However, a 1981 study of parents and siblings who had lost a child to cancer found that parents who were the most adjusted after the death of their child were those who had the following three important things in common. These included a consistent philosophy of life during the course of the illness that helped the family accept the diagnosis and cope with its consequences; had a viable and ongoing support person during the course of the illness; and gave their child the information that was appropriate to their age and development, as well as strong emotional support throughout the illness.