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Do Children Respond Better To Chemotherapy Than Adults?
Hello:My name is Valeria and I m working on a research paper for childhood cancer and it s different kinds of treatments. I was wondering if you could clarify one question since I ve been searching in a lot of sources and can t find the answer. I read that children tend to respond better to chemotherapy than adults, why is this? Isn t supposed to be the other way around considering chemotherapy is a strong treatment and a child s body is still in early development?
posted on
Fri, 14 Mar 2014
Medically reviewed by
Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team
Sat, 17 Oct 2015
Answered on
Mon, 19 Oct 2015
Last reviewed on
Hi, welcome to HCM.
Children tend to respond to chemotherapy better than adults because
1. Usually cancer is detected earlier in children as compared to adults which are diagnosed at late stages.
2. Exposure of carcinogens is less in childhood as compared to adults like smoking, lead exposure.
3. The cancer in childhood are mainly blood cancer which have better prognosis
I hope this has helped you. Take care.
Regards - Dr Deepak Patel, MD Pediatrics
Children tend to respond to chemotherapy better than adults because
1. Usually cancer is detected earlier in children as compared to adults which are diagnosed at late stages.
2. Exposure of carcinogens is less in childhood as compared to adults like smoking, lead exposure.
3. The cancer in childhood are mainly blood cancer which have better prognosis
I hope this has helped you. Take care.
Regards - Dr Deepak Patel, MD Pediatrics
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