70% of cancer cases that occur in children under 18 in Mexico are diagnosed in very advanced stages, said Efe a specialist Friday.
On the occasion of the International Day of Childhood Cancer this February 15, the doctor María del Rocío Guillén Núñez stressed that cancer is the second cause of infant death, according to data from the National Center for Childhood and Adolescent Health (Censia) ).
He added that there are 7,500 new cases of childhood cancer annually in the country and regretted that although 70% of cancer cases are curable if detected early, in Mexico this does not occur.
This, said Guillen, paliativist of the Pain Clinic at the National Institute of Cancerology (InCan) responds to many times parents often relate weight loss, skin color and exhaustion with cases such as “have a bug in the belly or an allergic problem “.
However, he pointed out, these symptoms may indicate that a child may have a cancer problem but “the first signs are not identified, they think they are parasites and in reality it is a bigger problem”, added Guillén.
Yadira Melchor, oncopediatra of the ABC Medical Center, 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 morning headache with persistent vomiting.
These signs may be accompanied by inflammation or persistent pain in the joints or bones, as well as abnormalities of palpation in the neck, abdomen or extremities.
Likewise, they may have persistent cough, recurrence of unexplained fever, anorexia, fatigue or symptoms of anemia, excessive bleeding or bruising.
Guillén indicated that at present the diagnosed cases of cancer in children are much smaller than in the adult population.
“However, there is an increase in the number of children with cancer, there are different cancer processes in children and within it the acute lymphoblastic leukemias are the most common,” he says.
He added that “there are other tumors such as sarcomas (which affect bones or muscle groups), testicular tumors or related to embryogenesis, that is, when the baby is forming in utero.They can be in the eye, retinoblastoma, kidney tumors.” (EFE) .-
