For several years, the month of September has been dedicated to the fight against childhood and young adult cancers.
- AP-HP is a center that cares for children and adolescents with cancer.
- On the occasion of a month of awareness of this type of pathology, he lists the treatments currently available and in development.
- “While the prognosis for childhood cancers was once catastrophic, the very significant progress made over the last 30 years in the treatment of these diseases has led to increasingly frequent cures in the majority of cases,” says the AP-HP.
In a press release provided on the occasion of Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month, AP-HP summarizes the different treatments that can benefit children and adolescents suffering from this type of pathology.
“While the prognosis for childhood cancers used to be catastrophic, the very significant progress made over the last 30 years in the treatment of these diseases has made it possible to achieve increasingly frequent cures in the majority of cases,” AP-HP first welcomes itself.
Childhood cancers: several treatments exist
Different treatments can be offered to children and adolescents with cancer:
– chemotherapy administered intravenously.
– Radiotherapy targeted to the affected area(s), which uses beams of radiation to destroy cancer cells.
– Surgerywhich allows the solid tumor to be removed during surgery. “This surgery has evolved a lot over the course in recent years, notably with the use of new techniques such as coelioscopy or CHIP (hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy)”, specifies the AP-HP.
– Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (often called “bone marrow transplant” for the treatment of certain leukemias or serious solid tumors) which consists of:
1/ undergo intensive chemotherapy, sometimes combined with radiotherapy;
2/ inject by intravenous infusion the hematopoietic stem cells of the patient himself or of a donor. “In the following weeks, these cells colonize the bone marrow, multiply and transform into blood cells (white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets)”, details the AP-HP.
Childhood cancer: CAR cells, a new form of immunotherapy
The specialists also devote a paragraph to a new form of immunotherapy in full development: CAR cells. “It is based on the genetic modification of the patient’s T cells so that they are able to recognize and destroy cancer cells,” explain the doctors. “It represents a real revolution in the treatment of bone marrow and lymph node cancers. We are talking in particular about acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in children, adolescents and young adults and aggressive B-cell lymphomas in adults.”they add.
This therapy is now used at the Robert-Debré AP-HP hospital and at the Saint-Louis AP-HP hospital in the AJA (Adolescents and Young Adults) hematology functional unit.
Childhood cancers: what are the most common?
In France, 2,300 cases of cancer are diagnosed in children aged 0 to 17. The most common cancers in young people are bone marrow and lymph node cancers (leukemia, lymphoma), brain cancers (brain tumors) and abdominopelvic tumors. They are treated in specialized services by pediatric oncologists and pediatric surgeons.
