Brief Overview On Pediatric Oncology And Cytogenetics

The term pediatric is often associated with the health concerning babies and young children and pediatric oncology refers to the study of cancer in children. The existence of cancer among adults is common but one should be aware that cancer can also occur in children but the cause for this occurrence among children still remains a mystery.

Overview On Pediatric Oncology

Pediatric oncology is a specialized practice in the field of medicine that involves diagnosing and treating children under the age of 18, who have cancer. Doctors specialized in this field of medicine need to have a strong heart because even if the child is given successful treatment, a high mortality rate still exists. This is slightly different from the treatment of adult cancer.

In pediatric oncology, children respond to treatment differently and the doctors need to have the best medical practices in place while treating kids with cancer. Another aspect to be considered is that children are closely knitted with their family members. Hence, the doctors have to spend an ample amount of time with the child’s parents and relatives and a part of the care and treatment would surely involve the family.

Well you cannot expect a child to remember medications, the appointments and follow all the instructions!So one should clearly understand that pediatric oncology might not fully involve the curing of the cancer in the child but also what best can be done to maintain a healthy atmosphere for the child during the treatment and this can be accomplished only with unprecedented parental support and care.

Information On Cytogenetics

Cytogenetics is the study of chromosomes and the diseases as well as abnormalities associated with chromosomes. Chromosomes are the genetic material which is the blue print as to how a cell functions once it’s produced. The number of chromosomes in the human cell is 46.Chromosome is made from DNA and contains all the genes present in a cell. Each gene is located on a specific site on every chromosome. There are various clinical syndromes that are associated with chromosomal abnormalities.

It is basically the study of the genetic constitution of individuals at the chromosomal level. Analysis and research done at the cell level can be related to clinical syndromes as well as damage caused due to exposure to environmental agents such as radiation and chemicals.Cytogenetics is also partly used to identify patterns of hereditary diseases and associated risks.

This field of science has shown massive development and is constantly gaining momentum in the recent years. Gone are the days when doctors used to sit with traditional microscopes in detecting abnormalities. Cytogenetics now has entered the field of basic biology, instrumentation, biochemistry and microscopy.

Yet another reason why Cytogenetics is booming nowadays is merely due to the fact that chromosomal abnormalities involve a large amount of DNA which in turn involves a large number of genes. Hence, the disorders associated with chromosomal abnormalities are usually very serious and can involve more than one organ. So unless the disorder is thoroughly examined at the cell level proper treatment cannot be given.

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