Children's cancers

It is rare for children to get cancer. The most common cancers that affect children are: 

• Leukaemia. Cancer of the white blood cells, which help us to fight infection.
• Brain tumour. Cancer that causes a tumour (lump of abnormal cells) in the brain. The brain, together with the spinal cord, controls all the functions of the body.  
• Sarcoma. Cancer affecting muscles (soft tissue sarcoma) or bone (bone sarcoma). 
• Germ cell tumour. Cancer that affects the cells that make eggs (in a girl’s ovaries) or sperm (in a boy’s testicles).
• Lymphoma. Cancer of the lymphatic system, which is part of your immune system. There are two main types: Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
• Liver cancer. Cancer that affects the liver. The liver helps blood to clot, breaks down fats and carbohydrates from our food and gets rid of harmful substances from our body.
• Neuroblastoma. Cancer that affects nerve cells called neural crest cells. It can happen anywhere in your body.
• Retinoblastoma. A rare cancer that causes a tumour in the eye.
• Wilms’ tumour (kidney). Affects the kidney. The kidneys filter your blood to remove waste products. 

About 1 in every 3 cancers that affect children are leukaemias, which are blood cancers. The most common tumours in children are brain tumours. If your child has a rare type of cancer, talk to the doctors and nurses about it, as they can give you more information.