Category Archives: Childhood Cancer

Beyond Colon Cancer: The Hidden Cancers Threatening Young Lives

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Lower Cancer Risk_Sm_for LIIn recent years, there has been a concerning rise in cancer incidence and mortality among individuals aged 15–39. Notably, colorectal cancer (CRC) has shown an uptick in cases among those under 50, both in the US and globally. This underscores the urgent need for preventive measures to mitigate cancer risks and elevate awareness.

While it might be perplexing to see the unexpected rise in cancer among the younger population, considering that traditionally cancer primarily affects older adults, the reasons behind this trend are complex and fascinating. Let’s delve into this in simpler terms.

Cancer is caused by mutation, i.e., a permanent change in the DNA sequence of an organism. Mutations can result from damage to DNA and errors in DNA repair.

Imagine DNA as a blueprint for building a magnificent LEGO castle. Each LEGO brick represents a specific unit of DNA called a “base pair”. DNA damage is like the LEGO bricks get chipped or break due to various factors, DNA repair by enzymes works as repair crews identify damaged bricks and replace them with new ones. When the damage is too severe or the repair crew is overwhelmed, the building plan (DNA) can be disrupted and structural crises in the castle (cell malfunctions) take place.

We know that most of cancer risk in aging adults can be attributed to randomly acquired mutations in proliferating tissues or susceptible cell types. In contrast, cancers in younger individuals result from the presence of genetic predisposition or the exposure to carcinogens (cancer-causing agents) or both, which all impact DNA damage and repair, genomic integrity, and then accelerate cancer growth in a young body.

To illustrate further, its origins have three key elements: inherited genetic predisposition, environmental carcinogens (including cancer-causing viruses), and developmental mutations—the latter can vary greatly depending on mutational rates in various cell types. Importantly, the interplay between each element and among these factors can also contribute to the variation in cancer risk among different cells, tissues and age groups.

Colon cancer is not the only type of cancer with a high prevalence in young people. Other cancers include:

  • oropharyngeal cancers (more in adolescent and young cancer survivors),
  • breast cancer,
  • cervical cancer,
  • skin cancer, melanoma and
  • pancreatic cancer – its genomic feature distinctly involves the well-known tumor genes (including breast cancer’s BRCA1 and BRCA2).

I’d like to highlight some harmful environmental factors more relevant to young people, and mostly also apply to a broader population.

  • Traumatic brain injury (resulting from car accidents, sports, falls, bast injuries but leading to long-term chronic neuro-inflammation in the brain and link to CNS tumors)
  • Oncogenic pathogens or carcinogenic viruses – such as Infections by the human papilloma virus (HPV), causing cervical and oropharynx cancers; Infections by the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), causing lymphomas and nasopharyngeal cancer; Merkel cell polyomavirus, causing Merkel cell carcinomas; Human T-cell lymphotropic virus, causing leukemias; and Fusobacterium, associated with colorectal cancer.
  • Hazard environmental exposures – Sunlight/UV damage, causing skin cancer; air-borne radon or tobacco smoke, or air-borne asbestos, causing lung cancer.
  • E-cigarettes – potential risk for oral cancer
  • Food-borne pre-carcinogens and/or carcinogens: generated by chemical or physical food processing, including N-nitroso compounds (NOCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), heterocyclic aromatic amines (HCAs), and acrylamide. Moreover, some fungi- and plant-derived substances pose a cancerous potential. Their mechanisms of action and relevance to human biology can be classified as either genotoxic (DNA-reactive) or epigenetic (effects other than DNA reactivity).

It’s essential to remember that adolescents and young adults diagnosed with cancer face a risk for early death. This risk, influenced by factors such as age at diagnosis, race, ethnicity, lower socioeconomic status and cancer type, is multifaced and requires adequate healthcare with careful monitoring.

Next, let’s move to colon cancer, especially early-onset CRC, with an emphasis on risk factors.

Modifiable risk factors

These include obesity, type-2 diabetes, heavy sugar and red meat diet, physical inactivity, smoking, high alcohol consumption, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and frequent antibiotic use.

Non-modifiable risk factors

Particularly for early-onset CRC, being male, black or Asian, having IBD, or a family history of CRC are among non-modifiable risks.

Based on recent scientific evidence, early-onset CRC is associated with a genetic predisposition, mainly attributed to sporadic mutations in some genes (e.g., APC, KRAS, BRAF, TP53) that trigger uncontrolled cell growth and subsequent tumor formation.

However, one overlooked group is individuals younger than 50 years (<50 years) who do not usually undergo screening if they are at average-risk (defined as those without a personal or family history of CRC, without a personal history of IBD). Currently, there are little data regarding risk factors for CRC at average-risk young adults who are also asymptomatic.

Act to lower cancer risk

Armed with a comprehensive awareness and an inner-warrior mindset, act swiftly in the specific domains to impede or prevent cancer development within your young body.

  1. Live a healthy lifestyle. Eat a plant-based diet, stay active, avoid smoking, limit alcohol, and practice sun-safety.
  2. Maintain a healthy weight.
  3. Get screened for early detection.
  4. Get cancer risk assessment and genetic counseling. (for high-risk individuals)
  5. Get the HPV vaccination. Protect yourself from sexually transmitted infections.

Finally, cancer in young people disrupt crucial life stages such as education, career development and family planning. Early diagnoses can have long-term consequences in every aspect of individual’s well-being. Furthermore, the rising cancer burden in young people poses a significant public health challenge. Thus, the unexpected vulnerability in young people demands our attention and dedication to this troubling shift.

 

Image credit: Matt Cole, Mis wanto at Vecteezy

Care about Childhood Cancers

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Think about Childhood CancerYour cute baby girl is your joy of life, yet she is suffering from leukemia. A neighbor’s little boy with a gorgeous smile just completed his cancer treatment. Sadly, many precious young lives have been taken away by childhood cancers…

If you’d like to learn ways to protect children from cancer, to help childhood cancer patients, and/or to improve the quality of life for pediatric cancer survivors, you came to the right place.

Let’s start with the challenges of childhood cancer patients and survivors.

Unique risk factors

Children are not “small adults”. In general, their care challenges are attributed to multiple factors, including their growth and development, psychological features, health condition, socioeconomic status, family and cultural dynamics, nurture at home and support outside of the home.

Childhood cancers are full of complexity and unknown. However, some known risk factors for childhood cancer have been established – mainly genetic and non-genetic ones.

Genetic or inherent risk factors include parental age, birth weight and congenital abnormalities. Some pediatric cancer incidences also vary by age, sex, and race or ethnicity.

Non-genetic factors are controllable and preventable, such as

  • High-dose radiation (The human fetus is very sensitive to radiation)
  • Prior chemotherapy
  • Exposure to environmental toxins or carcinogens, pesticides and air pollution
  • Exposure to infections – especially related to risk of acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL)
  • Pre- and perinatal lifestyle factors: parental diet, maternal smoking, alcohol or marijuana use, maternal medication, etc.

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Things we can help

Keeping these risk factors in mind, each of us can do our part at each stage of a child’s life. Here is a list of things:

  1. Take a good care during pre-conception and pregnancy period. Unhealthy diet, maternal tobacco or alcohol use, medications and radiation are among the casual link of environmental factors to childhood cancer risk. Particularly, maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with not only childhood cancer but also weight problems, other health and behavior issues. Avoid or minimize your exposure to second-hand and third-hand smoke too.
  2. Eliminate toxins and carcinogens from home and environment at large. Endless exposure to toxic chemicals through air, water, foods, and products results in a serious impact on public health. Then imagine the threat to pediatric cancer patients and survivors as well as all children, how harmful an early life exposure to toxic chemicals can affect their health decades later. It’s critical to underscore that only a small number of chemical exposures are known – leaving the unknowns are our exposure to many more chemicals in daily life and disease consequences. That’s why environmental protection is vitally important, and a green planet signifies healthful generations.
  3. Get genetic consultation if you question any genetic abnormality. Evaluate how parents’ occupational, environmental, medical or other exposures may contribute to a child’s cancer risk.
  4.  Prevent childhood obesity. This should start as early as possible. Maternal smoking during pregnancy has been linked to childhood obesity, and that may pose a risk to develop obesity in adult.
  5.  Monitor and control kids’ screen time. The radiation emitted from cell phone has been proposed as “a possible carcinogen for humans” by International Agency for Research on Cancer, though controversies still exist. Given the fact that it poses a cancer risk and cell phone exposure or use often begins from an earlier age, it’s wise to keep cell phone safety in mind.
  6.  Ensure overall health status, such as promoting healthy lifestyle, enough sleep and sun protection.
  7.  Foster individual hygiene and infection prevention.
  8.  Get vaccinated. Parents should encourage and educate their children/teens to have vaccinated against HPV and practice safe sex.
  9.  Team up care from society such as in the school setting and community setting. Family dynamic considerations, socioeconomic status or poverty, violence issues are various factors that contribute to pediatric health challenges.
  10.  Advocate healthcare models or payment changes to ease financial burdens of childhood cancer treatment, and to drive disease prevention.

Last but not the least, improve care and support for pediatric cancer patients and survivors, including all generations of these individuals (i.e. some of them are adults now). Consider what would their life after cancer look like – because of some painful and practical challenges they are facing in daily lives.

Let me elaborate a little more on this. Thanks to medical and technological breakthrough, 5-year survival rates for childhood cancer patients exceed 80%. However, the long-term effects of cancer and its treatment on the quality of life take a huge toll among these survivors.

Specifically, because their treatments take place when they are very young, especially during vulnerable periods of development, the complications from cancer treatment have significant, long-lasting health impacts on these children. The complications of cancer therapy range from impaired growth and development, neurocognitive and psychosocial deficits, cardiovascular diseases, endocrine organ dysfunctions, and gastrointestinal problems.

In addition, children who survive their initial cancers remain at risk for having a cancer recurrence or developing new cancers (secondary malignancies), yet a majority of cancer survivors do not receive risk-based care.

Summary 

Cancer impacts our children’s well-being and life. We all have the responsibility to take care of children, and to protect them from a variety of dangers, including interruptions during pregnancy, genetic anomalies, perinatal injuries, congenital defects, malnutrition, environmental hazards, infections, poverty, violence, and trauma. So, we can do a lot to help address their unique needs and find solutions when we open our hearts and minds.

Please share your thoughts and let us know how we can help pediatric cancer patients – via

Support@CancerPreventionDaily.com  OR http://www.cancerpreventiondaily.com/contact/

 

Image credit: https://www.pixelsquid.com; http://www.icpcn.org; CPD

 

Never Miss a Chance to Protect Children from Cancer

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Cancer Boy w-Ribbon_uthscsa.eduImagine that a tiny, precious life with a bright future was taken away by cancer, the “big C”… Nothing is more devastating than that.

That’s why I’m going to focus on what we can do about childhood cancers, so to prevent the worst loss by all means.

First, what exactly causes childhood cancers remains unclear. Risk factors of childhood cancers are different from those in adult cancers. For instance, lifestyle-related risk factors (such as tobacco smoking, alcohol intake, unhealthy diet, and sun overexposure) do not play a significant role in childhood cancers. Environmental factors have little influence, largely due to the lack of direct exposure of the fetus. Most childhood cancers result from genetic mutations, i.e. genetic errors occur randomly and unpredictably whether it’s inherited or acquired.

So, am I suggesting that there is nothing we can do to prevent childhood cancers or protect our children? No.

If you are not well-informed, you may miss a chance to prevent the unthinkable. Here is an example. Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is linked to cancers of cervix, oropharynx, rectum, or at other body locations. Nearly 93% cancer due to HPV-infection could have been prevented with recommended HPV vaccine as routine immunization for adolescent girls and boys starting at ages 11 to 12 years, following specific guidelines.

Can you see how one could miss the chance by doing nothing? Let me expand a little more on preventative measures.

1.      Childhood cancer prevention can start before conception in young women.

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2.      Cancer prevention with a healthy lifestyle should begin early in childhood.

A lifestyle cannot be developed overnight. Lifestyle factors also take years or decades to influence a cancer risk. Fostering a lifestyle with nutrition-rich diet, regular exercises, and healthy weight from a young age forward can greatly lower the risk of several cancers in adults, as accumulating evidence shows. Childhood obesity prevention can produce considerable health benefits. Also, postpone the time for kids to use cell phone or mobile devices to prevent brain tumor, the leading cancer death in children. Growing studies reveal an association of radiation with pediatric brain tumors, especially when young kids have the thinner skulls, with still developing nervous system and brain.

3.      A long-term protection: prevent secondary cancer after childhood cancer.

Cancer treatment like radiation can harm young kids’ organs or tissues because of their vulnerability and developmental stages. Radiation or chemo therapies for childhood cancers increase a risk for secondary cancer as one ages. Particularly common are tumors of the brain, breast, skin or spine, and bones. The higher doses of radiation, the greater risk these individuals have. So, it’s important to detect cancer early in the population of childhood cancer survivors, and make sure they have regular visits or check-ups, in addition to living a healthy lifestyle.

Let me conclude with the Quote from Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Light tomorrow with today.All said and done, apply these outlined approaches today to protect every child, so that each child has a healthier, happier, and brighter life tomorrow.

 

Image credit: uthscsa.edu and CPD

Eight Aspects of Childhood Cancer’s Unique Challenges

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Kids in red_bedes.orgChildren are our treasure, and children’s health is our nation’s wealth. Don’t you agree? Today, I briefly summarize why childhood cancers create unique challenges for us, for kids and their families, despite great progresses in the development of innovative or healing therapies. Here are 8 aspects of the “why”:

  1. The common cancers that develop in children and adolescents differ from those that occur in adults. The most common types of childhood cancer are leukemia, brain tumors and lymphoma, whereas cancers of lung, colon, skin, breast and prostate strike most American adults.
  2. Cancers in children and adolescents vary among ages. So, each age group needs its own target treatment and care.
  3. Young kids are still in their developmental stages and vulnerable to cancer treatments. For instance, treatment like radiation can harm their organs and tissues.
  4. Each childhood cancer needs its own set of treatments – although some cancers that seem different can be treated similarly. One-size-fits-all is not an effective approach.
  5. Lifestyle-related risk factors (e.g. smoking, alcohol, physical inactivity) play seemingly little role in childhood cancers, unlike many cancers of adults. Very few environmental factors, such as radiation exposure, have been linked with childhood cancer risk, although it might be unavoidable due to cancer treatment need.
  6. Prevention is challenging too. Pediatric cancers are generally caused by some key genetic mutations or changes. But it doesn’t mean that we can’t do anything about it.
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  8. Childhood cancers are rare, complex and aggressive in nature and in a small population; thereby posing challenges to research and development of new therapies.
  9. Survivors of childhood cancers face a life-long risk of developing another cancer. First, the treatments themselves have the potential to cause cancer. Second, young survivors also have to live with health problems (so-called late effect from cancer treatment) for the rest of their entire life. Sometimes the late effect can seriously affect body and mind.

While we’re embracing the heartbreak of childhood cancers, we should also care about the quality of life for young cancer patients and their families. One important thing in fighting childhood cancers is to cultivate in your children a healthy lifestyle at an early age, so that you can lower your children’s risk of getting cancer later in life.

So, knowing the unique challenges of childhood cancers, what will you do to be a part of a fighting force? Remember: a little effort adds up! It can be as little as spreading the word!

 

Image credit: bedes.org

How to Prevent Childhood Cancer

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Yellow ribbon_Childhood cancerApproximately 15,700 children are diagnosed with cancer each year. Among them, an estimated 1,960 deaths are expected. Are you aware of these sober statistics?

Losing a child to cancer is unthinkable pain and despair to all parents, which is why we call to prevent the worst loss, and why this post will focus on education. I will help you understand potential risk factors and powerful strategic actions to prevent childhood cancer. Let’s dive right into it.

Characteristics of childhood cancers

The types of cancer that develop in children and adolescents differ from those that occur in adults. Cancers of lung, colon, breast, prostate and skin affect most American adults. However, the most common types of childhood cancer are leukemia, tumors of brain and central nervous system, and lymphoma. Some cancers from embryonic cells and/or in developing organs include neuroblastoma (peripheral nervous system), medulloblastoma (brain), nephroblastoma or wilms tumor (kidney), and retinoblastoma (retina of the eye), which are rarely seen in adults. Also, incidences of these childhood cancers vary by age.

What causes childhood cancer remains unclear. Different cancers have different risk factors. Again, unlike many cancers of adults, lifestyle-related risk factors (such as tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption and unhealthy diet, etc.) do not play a significant role in a child’s risk of getting cancer. On the other hand, most childhood cancers result from inherited gene mutation or environmental factors or both, based on current research findings.

So, am I suggesting that we cannot do anything to prevent childhood cancer? No.

Strategies you can use and actions you can take

1.      Detect cancer early by genetic testing.

DNA makes up our genes and certainly influences our risks for developing certain diseases including cancer. A child may inherit DNA mutations from a parent that can increase his/her risk of cancer. The DNA changes are present in every cells of the child’s body, and the changes can be identified by testing the DNA of blood cells or other cells from the body. Genetic consulting is constructive for someone with a history of familial cancers.

2.      Delay the time for kids to use cell phone or mobile devices.

Brain tumor is the leading cause of cancer death in children. Radiation is a potential childhood cancer risk factor. There is growing evidence that it is associated with brain tumors, particularly because of the thinner skulls, still developing nervous system and brain of children. So be aware of electromagnetic fields and ionizing radiation. Don’t allow kids to use mobile phones, at least delay the time they start using it and limit the time they use it too.

3.      Avoid or limit environmental toxins in daily life.

I understand that it’s virtually impossible to escape environmental pollutants and toxic chemicals entirely nowadays. Environmental toxins are probably the most invasive and cumulative bombardment to a child’s early development and, of course, the threat to their health. Unquestionably, you can make every effort or make simple lifestyle choices to avoid your exposure to the following everyday toxins:

  • Heavy metals – found in mercury fillings, treated woods, vaccines, and factory farmed fish, sometimes in water
  • Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) – found in factory farmed fish
  • Asbestos – found in many building materials made before the mid to late 1970s
  • Dioxins – found in the fat of factory farmed animals
  • Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) – found in cosmetics, dry cleaned clothes, air fresheners, deodorants, paints and bug repellents
  • Passive smoking – A cigarette releases more than 7000 chemicals including carcinogens. Tobacco products damage almost every organ in the body, from mouth, eyes, lungs, guts, reproductive organs to bladder and bones.

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4.      Avoid or minimize pesticides use at home. 

Exposure to pesticide is perhaps one of the most dangerous forms of environmental risk. The contribution of environmental risk factors in the context of genetic predisposition has been reported with inconsistent results. However, one human study showed an increased risk of leukemia in children whose mothers were working in agriculture and exposed to pesticides during pregnancy.

Pesticides can be found in various areas in a household, from garden sprays, bug repellents, head lice shampoos and flea sprays on your animals, to non-organic fruits and vegetables as well as factory farmed meats.

5.      Grow your own toxin-free vegetables or go organic.

You will get more vitamins, more minerals and more micro-nutrients and zero or less pesticides. One more bonus – it keeps you stay physically active.

6.      Quit smoking, esp. during pregnancy.

Tobacco smoking contains seventy known carcinogens and causes various types of cancer in adults. Do you want to take the risk of releasing cancer-causing substances into the blood stream that may travel to your baby’s body?

7.      Live a healthy lifestyle.

Lifestyle factors usually take many years to influence cancer risk, but it’s never too late to develop it. Eat plenty of nutrient-rich, antioxidant-rich foods, engage in physical activities, keep a positive attitude, and maintain a healthy weight. Living a healthy lifestyle can benefit not only yourself, your children’s health but also the future generations to come.

If you think this post is helpful, please share. Thanks.

How Childhood Exposure to Toxic Chemicals Can Increase Cancer Risk

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Everything we breathe, see, ingest and touch is made up of chemicals. This is a combination of nature and science as well as a way of life. However, the exposure to toxic chemicals around us has become a growing health concern, and particularly disturbing is its negative impact when exposed during childhood.

Do you know that of the more than 80,000 chemicals in use in the United States, only a few hundred have been tested for safety? Today I will help you understand how toxic chemicals exposure can increase cancer risk.

The exposure of children to toxic chemicals may occur at different stages of their lives including:
-    embryonic (i.e. in utero or intrauterine) or prenatal exposure
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-    teenage/puberty to later adult exposure

Obviously these are major developmental periods, and young kids are very susceptible to toxins. Some of DNA-damaging substances can have greater impacts on one’s early life stage, and others might have harmful effects that last for a lifetime. Another issue is once versus repeated exposure. For example, taking a X-ray examine is single exposure, but using chemically loaded daily products would be repeated exposure.

Nowadays, the exposure to toxic chemicals takes place virtually indoor and outdoor environment. The food we eat, the water we drink, the products we use (from cleaners, pesticides, plastic items to toys) all contain toxic chemicals and/or carcinogens. Then we breathe the air with environmental pollutants. Think about this: a mom’s uterine is the first environment for a baby. If the mom exposes herself to toxic chemicals during pregnancy when the risk of damaging consequences seems to be the highest, imagine what impact this has already had and will have on the baby? The uterine should be the safest place in the world for a developing baby.

To raise your awareness of children’s environment associated with cancer risk, keep in mind that many toxic chemicals and known or suspected carcinogens are NOT tested and/or regulated. It’s more urgent than ever to safeguard yourself and your children at home, at work and in a larger community. Research has suggested that fetal carcinogenic exposure might lead to predisposition to develop cancer during childhood or in later life.

Start Cancer Prevention in Childhood

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Start in Childhood_1408737-mDid you know that the leading cause of death by disease among children under age 15 in the U.S. is cancer? It’s true. Each year more than 10,000 childhood cancer cases will be diagnosed in the U.S. Worldwide, almost 100,000 children die annually from cancer before the age of 15 years.

Losing a child to cancer brings unthinkable pain and despair to the child’s parents, which is why all parents need to do whatever they can, starting from early on, to prevent such a terrible loss.

The most common childhood cancers are brain and central nervous system tumors, leukemia, and lymphoma. There are also some rare forms of pediatric cancer, such as Wilms tumor. The causes of childhood cancers remain largely a mystery. It’s unlikely that known adult lifestyle-related risk factors (such as first-hand smoking and alcohol) influence a child’s risk of getting cancer. Some studies indicate that most childhood cancers result from inherited gene mutations, environmental factors, or interactions between genetic and environmental factors.

Because genetic errors occur randomly and unpredictably, there is little you can do to prevent them except to insist on a healthy lifestyle for your child. Cancer prevention and healthy habits should start from childhood so that we can protect our children from developing cancer when they are children and also later, as adults. The earlier that children adopt a healthy lifestyle, the better off they will be in their overall health and wellness and the more likely they will stay with healthy living in the long term. It is also very important to prevent early-life exposure to toxic substances that can be harmful to children and affect their health decades later.

Fostering a healthy lifestyle for our children can be a challenge given modern society’s hectic lifestyle. For example, everyone knows it’s important to eat more vegetables and fruits, but it’s easy to fall into the fast food or junk food trap. Because we often have so much to do, we also tend to have many excuses to keep both ourselves and our kids from being physically active. But even with a hectic schedule, we need to make time to protect our children from developing cancer now or in the future.

my-kids-1186542-mHere are 10 ways to protect your kids from childhood cancer:

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2.      Avoid exposure of your kids to secondhand smoke.
3.      Avoid or minimize radiation exposure.
4.      Limit cell phone use.
5.      Practice sun protection.
6.      Prevent childhood obesity with a healthy diet and regular exercise.
7.      Drink safe, filtered water.
8.      Protect your child from infectious diseases.
9.      Educate teens to practice safe sex.
10.    Ensure your kids’ regular checkups for early detection of any suspicious growths.

As the saying goes, “Our children’s health is our nation’s wealth.” At present, the best strategy to prevent childhood cancer and cancer later in life is your helping your kids develop a healthy lifestyle based on your cancer awareness.

Image credit: by milan6; by coloniera2