Today, 15 Day of February, is commemorated International Day of Childhood Cancer. The objective is to raise awareness about this disease and the need for all children and adolescents with cancer to have the same opportunities to access an adequate diagnosis and treatment.
Each year they are diagnosed around 1.400 new cases of children with cancer in Spain from 0 to 18 years. However, the survival rate between 0 to 14 years reaches almost the 80%. A hopeful data that aspires to be 100% thanks to the advances in Medicine.
What data do we have in Canary Islands?
Every year, more than 30 new cases of childhood cancer. According to the latest data from the Cancer Population Registry in Canary Islands, on average and in children under 14 years, the most frequent types of tumors in those ages are:
El Canary Health Service has three units of Pediatric Oncology: one that is located in the Maternal and Child University Hospital Complex of Gran Canaria where it attends the small susceptible of treatment in Gran Canaria and is reference center of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. But there is also the Our Lady of Candelaria University Hospital (HUNSC); and the University Hospital of Canary Islands(HUC) in Tenerife, where pediatric patients from the western islands are treated.
The alternatives are chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery; In addition, the Pediatric Oncology units of Canarian hospitals have the support of other specialties such as pediatric surgery, Neurosurgery, Traumatology, Radiotherapy, Radiology, Pain Units, counting on the most current techniques, being exceptional the need for transfers to any other hospital center outside the Canary Islands.
The hope of a vaccine
Recent research has worked on the development of a medicine genetic (with genetically modified cells) that allows to "silence" the genes responsible for "tolerance" to tumors, and then apply the vaccine. Many of the most prevalent types of cancer, such as leukemia, are the result of genetic and environmental factors. In the investigation of this disease, the study of genetic determinants is especially relevant. The creation of this medicine has proven its effectiveness in mice. With it, the organism recovers the antitumor activity and neutralizes the infected cells, with which the cancer is cured. The next step would be to achieve the same results with human genes in the laboratory.
In this sense, the Pablo Ugarte Association against childhood cancer has launched the initiative '#YoAPUsalto' to raise funds to finance the research that he intends to develop a vaccine against childhood cancer. The initiative, born in the St. Anne's School in Madrid, consists of recording while performing an "original, fun and creative" jump, and uploading it to social networks.