The Terrible Childhood Disease

There are a number of terrifying diseases occurring in the United States today. Especially a ton of different child diseases. One of the scarier ones is neuroblastoma. This disease is most commonly found in children around the age of 5. With this disease, there are many different kinds of symptoms, tests, treatments, prognoses, complications, and risk factors with this disease.

Neuroblastoma is something that usually effects more than one area of the body. Neuroblastoma is defined as “a cancer that develops from immature nerve cells found in several areas of the body” (Neuroblastoma, 2018).

Most commonly you can find this cancer in near the spine because it can affect nerve cells. It also can affect the adrenal glands which is on the kidneys. The abdomen and the chest are also areas that can be effected by this disease. It depends what form of this disease the child has will determine whether or not it will go away on its own or if they will need to be treated for this disease.

There are times when someone has a sick child and you think it could be something that is very wrong. There are many different signs and symptoms for neuroblastoma that could go along with other diseases as well. With this disease depending on where it is on the body makes the symptoms different. The most common area of this disease is the abdominal area. Symptoms in the abdominal area are “abdominal pain, a mass under the skin that isn’t tender when touched, and changes in bowel habits” (Signs and Symptoms of Neuroblastoma, 2018). Other symptoms would be if it’s in the chest would be pain in the chest, and if there is wheezing. Another common symptom is pyrexia which is a fever. Since it can affect things having to do with the chest a symptom that would relate to that would-be dyspnea which is shortness of breath. Also, something that pertains to the chest is Angina pectoris, and that means chest pain.

This disease has many different tests that can be done to see whether or not someone has neuroblastoma. One of the more in depth diagnostic tests would be a urine and blood test. With this test, the doctor takes the urine, and they use it to “check for high levels of certain chemicals that result from the neuroblastoma cells producing excess catecholamine’s” (Neuroblastoma, 2018). Another test that could be more useful than a physical exam would be image testing. The image tests could include anywhere from an x-ray to a MRI to see if it reveals a mass. If there were a mass that was found than your doctor could remove a sample of the tissue to test it even further.

There are different treatments that could be used to help neuroblastoma. One of the more major types of treatments is surgery. With the surgery, they can remove the diseased tumor in the child’s body. Usually when the “cancer has not spread, surgery can sometimes be used to remove the entire tumor” (Neuroblastoma-Childhood: Types of Treatments, 2018). They could also use different types of therapies to help treat it as well. One of those treatments is chemotherapy. With chemotherapy, they use drugs which destroys the cancerous cells, and they normally give the treatment through an IV. A therapy that is a little better to be used on someone is radiation therapy.

Depending on which level of neuroblastoma someone has will be the prognosis that they get. Every year in the United States there are about 700 cases of this disease. “It accounts for 6% of all childhood cancers in the United States” (Neuroblastoma-Childhood: Statistics, 2018). Normally neuroblastoma is common in children 5 years and younger. This disease is rare to develop in kids over the age of 10. The high-risk neuroblastoma has a less survival rate than the low-risk. Low-risk neuroblastoma has a survival rate of about ninety five percent, and the high- risk survival rate is around fourth five to fifty percent in 5 year olds.

With any disease, there are many different complications and risk factors. With neuroblastoma one of the more major complications if you were to have surgery to help fix it would be neurological problems. Neurological problems could come from any brain problem someone has. With neurological problems, it could make people act differently than they use to do. There could also be problems with bones and muscles because with certain testing and surgeries they have to take pieces of bones and muscles. There are a lot of risk factors that go along with this disease, and one of those is heredity. It’s about one to two percent of neuroblastoma is inherited from a parent, but most are not. Another risk factor is birth defects. With birth defects, it is said that “some links between birth defects and neuroblastoma might be related to changes in genes” (Risk Factors for Neuroblastoma, 2018). Also, age is another risk factor for this disease. Like said before it is mostly common in children around the age of five.

There are a few different reasons on why I chose this topic, and one of those is because of a TV show. On the TV show Grey’s Anatomy, there a handle full of different episodes that had patients with neuroblastoma. Another reason I chose this was because there was a celebrity that had this disease that was loved by many people, and she was a young teenager when she passed away. Also, I picked this because it is a very secretariat disease like any other one that takes the lives of many children. Also, because it was very interesting to readers hangout, and find out the different information about it.

In the United States, today there are many child diseases that could be fatal, and one of those is neuroblastoma. With neuroblastoma, the most common place to find it is the adrenal glands. There are plenty of different tests to find out if your child has this disease, and one of them is a blood or urine test. The greatest factor that goes into effect is the child’s age. As said before the most common age is 5. With neuroblastoma depending on which level of it you have is the prognosis you get for it. The most common compilation is having neurotically problems after surgery, and the most common risk factor is heredity. There are many child diseases that are in the world today, and one of those is neuroblastoma.

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