Tuesday 8 October, 2024
Experts Urge Research into Population Screening and Targeted Surveillance for Childhood Cancer
In a new review published in EJC: Paediatric Oncology, leading experts are calling for a prioritization of research into population screening and targeted surveillance for childhood cancer.
Childhood cancer is the biggest cause of death by disease in children aged 0-14 years, with 1,900 children being diagnosed each year in the UK. Despite this, many children experience long waits for diagnosis, contributing to treatment delays and their cancer being diagnosed in its advanced stages.
According to the paper, titled ‘A review calling for research directed at early detection of childhood cancers: the clinical, scientific, and economic arguments for population screening and surveillance’, childhood cancers can often be linked to inherited predisposition conditions or genetic mutations. The authors assert that research into population screening and targeted surveillance could lead to earlier detection, improving survival rates and quality of life for young people with cancer.
David Walker, Emeritus Professor of Paediatric Oncology at the University of Nottingham and the paper’s corresponding author, said: “Symptoms are hard to spot for families and health practitioners, so research into detecting cancer before symptoms present offers an approach that would make all children safer.”
The authors are calling for a concerted research effort into early detection of childhood cancer, citing the success of population screening for certain childhood diseases and the early detection of adult cancers. They argue that a structured screening program could identify at-risk children and lead to targeted surveillance with further tests during specific periods of their childhood.
Co-lead author Dr. John Apps, Associate Clinical Professor in Paediatric Neuro-Oncology at the University of Birmingham, emphasized the importance of understanding the risks associated with genetic mutations and the need for effective screening and surveillance programs. He said, “We’re keen to learn from current practices to improve the screening, better inform families about their risk, and potentially, develop treatments to prevent cancers developing.”
The paper’s release coincides with the personal story of Tori Reeve, whose six-year-old son Wilf was diagnosed with stage 4 Wilms’ tumor, a kidney cancer, in June 2022. Tori believes that had Wilf’s cancer been detected sooner, he may have been able to receive less invasive treatment and avoid some of the physical and mental trauma he experienced.
Co-lead author Dr. Tim Ritzmann, Clinical Associate Professor in Paediatric Neuro-Oncology at the Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre at the University of Nottingham, emphasized the need for new strategies to intervene in childhood cancer at an earlier stage. He said, “Our international authorship group, including parent experts and world-leading researchers, is well placed to widen this conversation and develop new and better strategies for intervening in childhood cancer earlier than ever before.”
Ashley Ball-Gamble, CEO of Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG) and a co-author of the paper, echoed the call for prioritization of research into early detection of childhood cancer. She said, “Finding and developing new methods and strategies to accelerate the detection of cancer in children and young people should be a key priority for cancer research. We want to ensure that childhood cancers aren’t left behind.”
The paper, titled ‘A review calling for research directed at early detection of childhood cancers: the clinical, scientific, and economic arguments for population screening and surveillance’, can be read in full here: https://www.ejcped.com/article/S2772-610X(24)00051-5/fulltext
This article was distributed by https://pressat.co.uk/
