Great strides taken in curing cancer in children
Experts say treating cancer in children is now achieving high rates of success, with four out of five youngsters completely cured.
“Most battles against childhood and adolescent cancer are victorious,” says Dr Sophia Polychronopoulou, pediatric oncologist and head of the Pediatric Oncology Department at Aghia Sophia Children’s Hospital in Athens.
There are about 300 new cases of children being diagnosed with neoplasms each year. Among them 35-40% have leukemia, 18% have a brain tumor, while the rest have solid malignant neoplasms.
“Leaps and bounds have been made in the fight against almost all neoplasms. Since the 1970s the survival rate of patients has risen 30-40%,” Polychronopoulou says. “The survival rate from leukemia is over 85%, from Hodgkin’s 85-90%, from Burkitt lymphoma 85%, when, in fact, patients previously diagnosed with Burkitt had only a 40% chance of survival,” she notes.
