A cancer diagnosis is always unexpected and tragic. None of us like to see our children sick, especially sick with a serious illness. As a parent, you know that everything changes when you hear the doctor confirm your fears.

A million thoughts race through your mind – how will you explain what’s happening to your child? Why did this happen? How far has the disease progressed? How will we pay for everything? 

One of the common frustrations faced by those impacted by pediatric cancer is relatively slow research progress. Childhood cancer research is often underfunded and underemphasized compared to adult cancers. While one would think scaling and tweaking adult cancer research would be a simple matter, it’s not that easy.

Pediatric cancer is a beast that presents unique risk factors, challenges, and treatment goals. If we hope to push for more research and better funding, we need to start by understanding and emphasizing the fundamental differences in these types of cancer. These differences inform the treatment gap and demonstrate how pediatric oncologists must approach things differently.

While technically, we’re talking about the same disease, they vary in critical ways. Here’s what you need to know!

5 Ways Pediatric Cancers Differ from Adult Cancers

#1 – The Types of Cancer

From the jump, the types of cancer children develop tend to differ from what we see in adults. This is because childhood cancer has more to do with the growth and development of tissue rather than aging or environmental factors. Common childhood cancers are rarer in adults, including neuroblastoma, Wilms tumor, retinoblastoma, and some types of leukemia. Adults will more commonly experience breast, lung, and colon cancers.

The cells in the body are constantly renewing themselves. Our genetic makeup instructs these cells what to do. Over time, the copying of this genetic code can result in errors. These errors cause cells to malfunction, leading to cancer development. In adults, cancer comes from the accumulation of mistakes and damage to the genetic code. Children, on the other hand, don’t have time to accumulate this genetic damage. Their cancers have more to do with rapid cellular development and inherited risk factors.

We found this resource helpful in explaining this concept more fully.

#2 – Treatment Goals

Generally speaking, treatment goals vary between children and adults. Care teams for children are thinking about treatment’s long-term, lifelong implications. They need effective treatments that also minimize lasting side effects. They must also consider preserving fertility and aligning treatment with distant life goals and bodily growth.

While ideally, adults are also approached with an emphasis on longevity and quality of life, those goals are not universal. Patients at different ages and stages of life may see the focus shift to quality, not quantity, controlling their condition over curing it, or palliative care.

#3 – Survivorship Conditions

A child’s experience with cancer will impact them for the rest of their life. They’re still growing and developing, increasing the risk for secondary cancers and further medical complications as they age. Adults may also face late effects, but it has more to do with their treatment. It may not be a concern for older patients simply because they don’t have the lifetime left to live that children have.

Ultimately, this impacts how the care team approaches treatment. It’s not just about curing cancer but minimizing future late effects and risk factors.

#4 – Risk Factors

Speaking of risk factors, these differ between kids and adults, too. Adults are greatly influenced by decades of exposure to carcinogenic risk factors such as smoking and sun exposure. Children, by contrast, don’t have time to build up significant exposure to environmental risks.

This is one reason it’s harder to catch and diagnose pediatric cancers. Unless there are clear, known genetic risks, there’s not much to go on to evaluate (or manage) risk. This is why it’s so important that parents understand the signs to watch for! 

#5 – Research & Clinical Trials

There’s an understandable frustration at the perceived slowness of pediatric cancer research. It’s not as easy as translating adult research to a smaller scale. The treatment goals are different. Because of this and the general divide between types of cancers, pediatric oncology is its own unique field.

Yes, research for adult cancers can help inform childhood treatment, but there’s not a one-for-one translation. For both demographics, cancer is incredibly diverse. Every patient needs a tailored approach that fits in with their lifelong goals.

For kids, this usually means minimizing the toxicity of treatments and emphasizing long-term quality of life. 

Despite the difficulties in treating kids with cancer, outcomes are continually improving. Survivorship rates are growing, new treatments are emerging, and kids receive more specialized, specific, and holistic care than ever before.