Daniel McLellan Memorial Fund, Child Leukemia Halifax Nova Scotia

What is Leukemia?

Although cancer is a rare disease in children, it does occur. It is often a very different type of disease than in adults. In general, treatments for childhood cancer are more successful than in adults. Overall 70-80% of children are cured.
Leukemia is the most common type of cancer that affects children. It can happen in any child from birth right into adulthood. It is important to say that it is usually a very different disease from the types of leukemia that adults get and treatments are different.

Approximately 25 children per year are diagnosed with leukemia in the Maritime Provinces of Canada (New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia). Although they may get a lot of their treatments at home, all their care is co-ordinated through the Pediatric Oncology Department at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax. The team in Halifax works very closely with many doctors and nurses in other places to make sure that the care these children get is the same as anywhere else in North America

Signs and Symptoms of Leukemia

Children who have leukemia often look like any other child who is sick. There are no specific signs and symptoms to look out for, and children can be relatively well or can be very sick indeed.

The common things that children and parents complain of when they have leukemia are:

• Paleness
• Tiredness and lack of energy
• Poor appetite and weight loss
• Generalized aches and pains
• Increased bruising or maybe bleeding
• Swollen glands (lymph nodes)
• Lingering infections that just don’t seem to go away

It is very common for children to be seen several times, often by many different doctors before leukemia is found. The usual way of diagnosing leukemia is to take a blood count (CBC). This will usually show that there are leukemia cells in the blood. The rest of the blood count may be abnormal too with low platelets and anaemia.

What is Leukemia?

Leukemia is a cancer of the white blood cells, which are the ones that help to fight infections in the body. These white cells are made in the bone marrow (the factory that makes all blood cells). Bone marrow is found in many of the bones in the body, but particularly the hips, spine, ribs and the ends of the arm and leg bones.

No one knows exactly what causes leukemia. Children such as those with Down’s syndrome are at a higher risk of developing leukemia.

The most age for children to get leukemia is between 2 and 5, but we can see it in children of any age. Although it is extremely rare, leukemia can even occur in small babies.

Types of Leukemia

There are two major types of leukemia in children. The more common type is called Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) and accounts for around 70-80 % of all cases. The other type is called Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). Although they are both leukemias, they need to be treated in different ways.