This month is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and as the month ends, we want to share how you can recognize the awareness month and become a prevention partner in the future!

Childhood Cancer Awareness Month is when organizations honor kids affected by cancer and help raise awareness about the disease. This awareness helps in the continued research of various cancers and treatments.

Every September, Childhood Cancer Awareness Month is recognized. A gold ribbon is used to recognize and raise awareness for Childhood Cancer. Go Gold for September. 

Childhood Cancer Awareness Month is a time to recognize the children affected by cancer and honor them. But also recognizing the lives lost, the survivors, and the children still battling the cancer.

There is not a definite cause of childhood cancer; it is still not completely understood. It can be different than adult cancers, where environmental or lifestyle factors cause them; for childhood cancer, it is different. Mutations or genetic changes are more likely to cause cancer in children. This is why learning about mutations a child may have is essential. Learning about the mutation can help create a plan to treat the cancer.

Cancer affects each person differently, but there are some common signs and symptoms that someone may experience. Some symptoms can include sudden vision changes, frequent headaches, unexplained weight loss, easy bruising, easy bleeding, limping, possible vomiting, ongoing pain in a particular area of the body, paleness, loss of Energy, possible swelling, and unexplained/unusual lump.

These symptoms could be a sign of cancer or even something else, like an infection. Symptoms might also vary by cancer type. If there are any concerns about a youth’s health, having their physician see them is essential.

Physicians and medical professionals will conduct testing to find a diagnosis by possibly conducting:

Cancer treatments include chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery, stem cell transplant, immunotherapy, and clinical trials. Physicians discuss the treatment process with families to ensure they are aware and comfortable with the next steps.

Hopefully, all children diagnosed with cancer will become survivors and beat their diseases. But survivorship does come with cancer aftereffects. Survivors are most likely to develop health problems months of the year after cancer, which the treatments could have caused. There could be long-lasting physical and emotional effects. The cancer treatment could affect what health issues the survivor could live with in the future.

References:

America Cancer Society. Finding Cancer in Children.

Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer, Childhood Cancer in the United States, 2024. 

America Cancer Society. Finding Cancer in Children.

Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Step, Up, Stop Cancer, 2024.

ACCO, US Childhood Cancer Statistics, 2021.