Teens and cancer: Understanding diagnosis | AboutKidsHealth at The Hospital for Sick Children

Описание: What is it like to be diagnosed with cancer as a child or teen?
In this video, young patients and doctors share real experiences of childhood cancer diagnosis—from early symptoms and testing to life-changing diagnoses, and why it’s so difficult to diagnose cancer in children and teens.

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This video is provided for general information only. It does not replace a diagnosis or medical advice from a healthcare professional who has examined your child and understands their unique needs. Please speak with your doctor to check if the content is suitable for your situation.

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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Dr. Gupta: Because cancer is so rare in kids, it does sometimes take a little bit of time to diagnose a child with cancer. Usually what happens is there are some preliminary tests that's done, either it's going to be a blood test, or it's going to be an x-ray. Sometimes it even requires more than that, like an ultrasound or a cat scan, to really understand you know what it is that's causing that child's problem.

Hasina: When I had come home after prom, there was like lumps, there was like pain in my neck. And when I woke up the next morning, I had felt like small lumps, so my mom told me I had to go to the doctor. And at first he thought I had like a flu or something affecting my lymph nodes. So he gave me antibiotics, but when those didn't work I had to go see an ear, nose and throat specialist. And they put a needle into one of the lumps that was there and they like took off fluid, but then they still didn't like know exactly what was wrong. But I just like do a biopsy, where they like put me to sleep and cut my neck and took out one of the lumps that was inside. And that's when they found out that I had rhabdomyosarcoma.

Alexandra: In December 2006, I broke my leg after having lots of pain for many months. And they realized that it wasn't just a simple break, since I've just collapsed on me. And I was rushed to SickKids, suspicious of cancer, and they were able to do an MRI and confirm that it was cancer.

Marianna: I didn't know what oncology meant before, so I'm like 'Ah, this is really gonna be something really simple.' So, then they told me they were gonna give me a bone marrow aspirate, I didn't really know what that was either, so I had my mom investigate it and she told me what it was and I was like 'Okay. Well, okay.' So, they just. They put me to sleep and did the whole whole surgery and then that after that they told me that I got leukemia. The whole entire week was a blur of just surgery, chemo. Just a lot. And then by the 24th, which was Christmas, Santa Claus came into my room and I didn't really notice who he was. I was just all blurry. I didn't know what was going on. This is really weird.

Dr. Nathan: Teenagers get a wide range of cancers and to have a diagnosis of cancer is obviously devastating. There you are going to school, hanging out with friends, leading a normal life; and suddenly this diagnosis creeps up on you and obviously it turns your whole world upside down. Our job is to get you through your treatment with as little impact as possible in your day-to-day life, and when it's all done, to get you back into doing the things that you want to do as a teenager or young adult.

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