NHS gene check is helping children with cancer

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https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crgk4r308mro

NHS gene check is helping children with cancer

2 hours ago
By Michelle Roberts, Digital health editor

Children with cancer are getting better treatment thanks to a genetic test the NHS has been offering, say experts.

Whole genome sequencing (WGS) checks the entire DNA code of the tumour to identify each cancer-causing mutation.

That information helps doctors quickly decide what medicines will work best.

It can also give clues about why the cancer occurred and whether family members might be at risk too.

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1. I can confirm . I'm a pediatric hospice nurse. We see less cancer than we did years ago.

Most of our cancer kiddos have brain tumors. We do see a smattering of kids with other cancers who fail treatment.

For example, 10 years ago we saw a lot of kids dying from neuroblastoma, a tumor from nerve cells which is not a brain tumor. I would say in the last 5 years I have seen one child have that disease in our hospice program.

Genetic disorders are the most common diseases we see in pediatric hospice.

Yes, it is possible more families choose a hospital death and no hospice for kids with cancer because the prognoses are better it's harder to acknowledge there are no more options.

Some stats:

Each year, the parents of more than 15,000 children age 0-19 in the U.S. will hear the words "your child has cancer." Across all ages, ethnic groups, and socio-economics, this disease remains the number one cause of death by disease in children. In the last 40 years, the overall survival rate for childhood cancer has increased from 10% to over 85% today, but for many more rare childhood cancers, the survival rate remains much lower. Furthermore, the number of diagnosed cases annually has not declined in nearly 20 years. There are approximately 483,000 adult survivors of children's cancer in the United States.

https://curesearch.org/childhood-cancer-statistics