Exploritory Essay

Tanner Elkins

Mrs. MkCoy

English 2

September 3, 2013

Cancer treatment; the Affects on Children

 

My brother Kasey Kliebenstein had Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He was diagnosed a day before his 4^th birthday. It was very saddening and the treatment he had to go through was just unbearable pain. I always thought about if the chemo he had, which is a type of treatment through the veins, if it changed the way he thinks. This cancer is different though to the one I’m going to talk about. He’s been cancer free for about 4 years now and still is today. His deals with the blood but the one I’m going to talk about is Lymphoblastic Leukemia and it’s in the brain. This is one that works better for my thesis or question, because the Non Hodgkin’s is in the blood not the brain but it still can have affects in other places. Should CNS Radiation be used to treat Lymphoblastic Leukemia?

            Many children age 4-17 are diagnosed with Lymphoblastic Leukemia and to treat it is with CNS Radiation. You may have heard of this treatment if someone you know has cancer or your parents have it. This is one of the most used cancer treatment just like chemo. Chemo is the most common though; it’s a poison that kills a lot of cells in your body, even your good cells but radiation does the same thing, except it has a later effect in your body many years later. Over the years it reduces a child’s IQ scores significantly as time progresses. This affects children’s long term education. It can make you feel like you are inferior to your peers and your not like any one else. This can also lead to depression and may lead to suicide in middle school or high school. It also affects the way they act and speaking skills. This affects the main part of a child’s life.

  St. Jude hospital which is a very popular cancer hospital for children, said, “The children below the age of 4 had a significant decline in their abilitations.” CNS radiation type of treatment was introduced in the 1960s and 1970s. It has cured more people than before this time. The people that were cured are still being affected from that treatment today. They might have been different psychologically if they had a different type of treatment. St. Jude also said, “Children younger than 5 years old were more likely to have an IQ lower than 80 with 3 years of treatment than that of children that were over age 5 at their diagnoses. Younger children are more prone to treatment-related neurologic toxic effects.” In all survivors of cranial radiation; some have abnormalities are mild in some patients (their IQ drops about 10 points). There are those who have higher doses and may have significant learning disabilities. Children below the age of 4 and had cranial radiation treatment, may develop PTSD which is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD can have an affect on the family socialization, decreased social support, and noncancer stressors.

             I asked my brother about how he felt about his self after taking chemo, and he said he never felt a difference about himself. Now for the children who had radiation as their treatment, they noticed some things about their test scores and even in high school after many years after their treatment with their cancer with radiation. Luke is a kid on the website called, “st.baldricks.”  He went under radiation treatment for 6 weeks and also chemo. He lives in Lansing in Minnesota and loves star wars, also arts and crafts. He was diagnosed with cancer when he was 3. He’s now 7 and is cancer free at the moment. His treatments has caused him to have 9 cavities in his 9 baby teeth and having a hard time gaining and maintaining his weight. As you see he has had a few effects from his treatment.

There are still a lot of unknown effects on the type of treatments that are used today to treat these types of cancers. These types of treatments that are being used can sometimes cure these types of cancer however the long term effects will continue to affect children psychologically and neurologically until more research can be performed. There are still many treatment centers located around the world that are diligently working to find healthier treatments that won’t have the long term side effects that we see and have seen in cancer treatment thus far. My opinion concerning this issue is it should not be used in children until all the side effects are known. Many children should never go through something this tragic and painful. They should use chemo as a alternative than radiation until they find something better for a child’s treatment.