Cancer in Children Clinical Management
With the fall in mortality from infectious diseases, the impact of childhood cancer in the Western World has increased to become the second commonest cause of death in the age group 1-14 years, being surpassed only by accidents. However, even in those cou
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Edited by H.1.G. Bloom United Kingdom 1. Lemerle France M.K. Neidhardt W. Germany P.A. Voute Netherlands
With 121 Figures
Springer Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York 1975
ISBN-13: 978-3-540-07261-4 DOl: 10.1007/978-3-642-96258-5
e-ISBN-13: 978-3-642-96258-5
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data. Main entry under title: Cancer in children. Bibliography: p. Includes index. I. Tumours in children. 1. Bloom, Harris Julian Gaster, 1923- [DNLM: I. Neoplasms - - In infancy and childhood. QZ200 C21513] RC281.C4C37 618.9'29'94 75-8910. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specially those of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, broadcasting, reproduction by photocopying machine ·or similar means, and storage in data banks. Under § 54 of the German Copyright Law where copies are made for other than private use, a fee is payable to the publisher, the amount of the fee to be determined by agreement with the publisher.
© by Springer-Verlag Berlin· Heidelberg 1975.
The use of registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Typesetting, printing and binding: Oscar Brandstetter Druckerei KG, Wiesbaden.
Preface
With the fall in mortality from infectious diseases, the impact of childhood cancer in the Western World has increased to become the second commonest cause of death in the age group 1-14 years, being surpassed only by accidents. However, even in those countries in which paediatric cancer is attracting increasing interest, the disease is relatively uncommon, and the number of cases seen by anyone physician, even in a large general hospital, is often limited to one or two a year. The widely held view by parents and even by many doctors that cancer in childhood is usually untreatable and inevitably fatal is no longer tenable. With improvement in the therapeutic response or in the actual survival rates of children with such lesions as Wilms' tumour, brain tumours, rhabdomyosarcomas, Ewing's sarcoma, retinoblastoma, lymphoma and even leukaemia, there is a real hope of achieving a substantial reduction in the mortality of childhood cancer. Paediatric oncology is, in fact, providing a vigorous stimulus to the much wider field of cancer treatment and research, and is demonstrating the advantages of a multi-disciplinary cooperation in the management of this disease. The child with cancer must benefit from accumulated experience and expertise when it comes to investigating the case, staging the disease, and selecting and carrying out the all important first treatment. Although optimum treatment factors are by no means established, certain therapeutic principles, based on available knowledge, have emerged for various tumours: it is these principles which are not always applied even in large centres. Unless the initial assessment is accurate and t
