The Costa Rica News (TCRN) – Every year in Costa Rica 150 new cancer cases are diagnosed in children, a figure that compared with the incidence of this disease in adults is relatively small (10,000 cases annually).
Of that total, 70% of the children are healed thanks to medical treatment along with interdisciplinary teams involving psychological, social and educational aspects.
The pediatric cancer treatment is at the National Children’s Hospital in San Jose. On average, the medical center treats 700 patients.
From their records, 30% of cases are diagnosed when the parents go to the Emergency Room for symptoms that would not indicate cancer, such as frequent headaches with vomiting or nosebleeds.
According to Maira Pereira, manager of the Partnership to Fight Childhood Cancer (ALCC), symptoms include: unexplained weight loss, prolonged bleeding, unexplained fever of more than two weeks, any mass in the abdomen, accompanied by vomiting due to a headache, pain in limbs for over four days.
The National Children’s Hospital claims that the most common tumor in children is acute leukemia (with 50 percent of cases), followed by cancers of the central nervous system and then lymphomas.
The Costa Rica News (TCRN)
San Jose Costa Rica
