Seven out of 10 Mexican children with cancer are diagnosed late

On the occasion of the International Day of Cancer Baby On February 15, Dr. María del Rocío Guillén Núñez emphasized that the Cancer it's the second leading cause of death babyish, according to data from the National Center for Child and Adolescent Health (Censia).

He added that 7,500 new cases of Cancer babyish in the country and regretted that although 70% of Cancer they are curable if they are detected early, this is not the case in Mexico.

This, said Guillen, paliativiste of the National Cancer Institute's Pain Clinic (InCan), has responded on many occasions. Parents often badociate weight loss, skin coloring and exhaustion with cases such as "having an abdominal stink or an allergy problem".

However, he noted, these symptoms may indicate that a small child may have a problem with Cancer but "The first signs are not identified, they think they are parasites and in fact it is a more serious problem"added Guillen.

Symptomatology

Yadira Melchor, oncopediatra of the medical center ABCHe stressed the importance of informing parents of the warning signs.

Among the main symptoms, he said, are unexplained weight loss, strabismus or eye abnormalities and headache in the morning with persistent vomiting.

These signs can be added persistent inflammation or pain in the joints or bones, as well as abnormalities of palpation to the neck, abdomen or extremities.

In the same way, they can have persistent cough, recurrence of unexplained fever, anorexia, fatigue or symptoms of anemia, excessive bleeding or bruising.

Guillén said that currently diagnosed cases of Cancer in children, they are much smaller than in adults.

"However, there is an increase in the number of children with Cancer; There are different processes of Cancer in children and in it acute lymphoblastic leukemias are the most common "he says.

He added that "other tumors exist as sarcomas (which affect bones or muscle groups), testicular tumors or related to embryogenesisthat is when the baby is formed in utero. They can be in the eye, retinoblastoma, kidney tumors. "

With information from EFE