Introduction
Cancer is never an easy subject. This type of cancer we are going to discuss here today is particularly devastating. That is because it affects those who are the most vulnerable. Nobody wants to see a person suffering from cancer, but when it attacks children it is even harder to face. Many questions arise around this topic and there are a few answers that have been found. The fact is that there has been a lot of progress made in the diagnosis and treatment of this disease. We are going to take a look today at an interesting breakthrough that happened recently. It is certainly giving hope and making a lot of noise in the scientific community. Let us go ahead one step at a time to discuss this grave subject, perhaps we can shed some light with accurate information.
Leukemia
As we mentioned above, leukemia is a type of cancer. It affects blood cells and the ability of the blood to perform its vital functions throughout the body. Due to the fact that your blood is literally everywhere this type of cancer can be devastating. It will often move fast and destroy your health. Mortality rates with leukemia are over 60%. That is high but it has been going down in recent years. That is because science is always improving the ways in which it detects and fights this kind of disease.
Leukemia is more common amongst patients of 55 years of age and older, statistically speaking that is the greater section of the population that is affected by it. But it also attacks children. It is believed that the type of leukemia that affects children is not the same as the one that goes after older people.
Very little is actually understood about the disease. There are a few methods that have been found to be effective in treating it, and they are being employed with varying degrees of success.
Cancer in children
Cancer may affect a person at any age. It is more common in adults, but children are not free from this threat. The most common types of cancer that may afflict children are Leukemia and a few types of Brain cancer. Those are the most prevalent ones, but there are others that may occur, as well. Not everything is understood about this disease. There are advancements being made on it constantly. The disease is a focal point for scientific efforts because it is one of the main mortality causes worldwide. There is a lot of interesting in curing all kinds of cancers and child leukemia is right on the top of that list for obvious reasons.
There is some reason to believe that genetic predisposition plays a role in the incidence of childhood leukemia, but there has been a recent breakthrough that claims that this is only a factor.
A breakthrough
As we have mentioned, treatment in this field is a very desired thing indeed. That means that there are a lot of professionals around the world devoted to finding another piece of this very hard puzzle. One such pieces seem to have been found by Prof. Mel Greaves, of the Institute of Cancer Research in London. Professor Greaves claims to have finally found the cause for childhood leukemia, and it is a very surprising one.
He had to go through a lot of years of research and investigation to come to this conclusion. He was able to piece together this theory by observing a lot of data and linking a lot of different events that slowly clued him into this breakthrough. Once he achieved it everything fell into place and it all made sense for him. The scientific community is one to go after claims such as this fast. That happens so that they can either be confirmed or disproven as soon as possible. The implications of this discovery are so great that they demand immediate attention.
Let us talk a bit about what Professor Greaves found.
The cause of childhood leukemia
Apparently, the reason why this type of cancer attacks young children is related to the immune response of their systems. Or more precisely, lack thereof. It seems that children that have failed to develop their immune system during their first year of life are at a high risk of contracting this disease. The reason for this is that once faced with infection, their bodies do not know how to react in the proper way to it and the disease unleashes itself onto them.
This would explain why childhood leukemia is more prevalent in developed countries than it is in underdeveloped ones.
Professor Greaves recommends a few things to do to make sure that you lower the chances of a child getting this terrible disease. We are going to cover them here next.
Preventive measures
1. Do not overprotect children from microorganisms.
This is a big deal. If you allow your children to be exposed to the normal amount of bacteria that they would find during the first years of their life their immune system has a chance to train for bigger infections and is able to learn how to do its job properly. The problem with trying to shelter ourselves from this kind of infection is that it makes our own defenses weak. It is impossible, after all, to remain isolated from every microscopic threat. It is better to make sure that the body’s defenses are strong enough to handle them.
2. Vaginal birth and breastfeeding.
It has been proven that these two factors contribute a lot in exposing children to healthy bacteria. They will also put the child in contact with their mother’s immune system which will help them develop their own. Lastly, they will also be in contact with other microorganisms that may not be helpful but will force them to develop their own defenses.
To hear Prof. Greaves explain his breakthrough himself, click here: