Many of the symptoms and signs of childhood cancers are very common and only health professionals with sufficient training will be able to tell whether a complaint is due to a normal childhood disease or a rare disease such as cancer.
Tiredness and paleness are usually the result of nothing more than the flu but could also signal the onset of leukemia. Fever is often noted in a child with an infection, but recurrent fever, especially with bone pain, may be a symptom of leukemia or a bone tumor .
Children who have headaches with vomiting may have nothing more than an upset stomach, but recurrent headaches with vomiting that do not go away with time require a physician to make sure there isn't a brain tumor.
Children who have a mass in their abdomen are probably just constipated, but the mass could be Wilms' tumor, neuroblastoma, lymphoma or a liver tumor. Lumps in the neck are usually due to an infection, but if they don't respond to antibiotics, a lymphoma is a possibility. Drainage from the ear is usually due to an ear infection and only rarely due to some tumor.
Weight loss is rare in a young child, although it is something teenagers often desire. If the weight loss is not controlled, however, there may be psychological reasons involved or a lymphoma such as Hodgkin's disease.
Obviously, children's complaints are usually the result of normal childhood diseases. But when parents are concerned that their child has a persistent problem, then they should take him or her to the doctor. The findings of a physical examination may suggest that special tests are necessary to discover whether the child does in fact have a cancer.
