More than ever, it is possible to recover from paediatric cancer and go on living. Thanks to ongoing work by researchers and medical teams, medical science is progressing rapidly, leading to improved treatment protocols.
Pediatric cancer
in Québec
The diagnosis
A new journey begins
A paediatric cancer diagnosis is a deeply upsetting moment for a family. Amid all the uncertainty, an essential need quickly emerges: that of mobilizing all the available resources to ensure the child’s recovery and health. Today, thanks to advances achieved through research, this hope is more tangible than ever.
As soon as the diagnosis is confirmed, the child is taken into care by a team of specialists. Depending on the child’s place of residence, they will be received at one of the four Charles-Bruneau Centres or Units in Quebec. This unique network provides leading-edge care and highly skilled support from the very outset of treatment.
The reality of the care trajectory
The care trajectory is adapted to each child’s reality. After an initial hospitalization period that generally starts the day of the diagnosis, follow-up continues with regular visits to the day centre for chemotherapy treatments and support care after discharge.
In the case of leukemia, for example, the protocol generally spans a period of two years. The frequency of appointments gradually decreases over time, allowing the family to recover a certain balance and resume their daily life, even if it differs considerably from their life prior to the diagnosis.
In certain cases, for instance when there is a recurrence, more complex treatments such as a bone marrow or umbilical cord blood transplant may be necessary, requiring a hospitalization of at least six weeks to give the child’s immune system time to bounce back and ensure a safe recovery and adequate control of side-effects.
Figures on paediatric cancer in Quebec
Research
A catalyst for the future
A child diagnosed today benefits from the expertise accumulated by previous generations of researchers. In Quebec, the overall recovery rate has now reached 80%. While this is immense progress, our mission does not stop there.
Recovery remains our priority, together with quality of life in the long term.
Currently, more than two-thirds of children in recovery experience after-effects stemming from their treatments. For that reason, the Fondation continues to invest massively so that recovery not only entails survival, but also growing up healthy and free of complications.
Post-recovery
A major issue
- The overall recovery rate currently stands at 80% (compared to 30% in 1980).
- Two-thirds of survivors present with chronic or adult-onset health problems.
- Out of this number, one-third deal with severe complications that can reduce their life expectancy.
