ご利用について
This PDQ cancer information summary has current information about the treatment of rare cancers of childhood. It is meant to inform and help patients, families, and caregivers. It does not give formal guidelines or recommendations for making decisions about health care.
Editorial Boards write the PDQ cancer information summaries and keep them up to date. These Boards are made up of experts in cancer treatment and other specialties related to cancer. The summaries are reviewed regularly and changes are made when there is new information. The date on each summary ("Date Last Modified") is the date of the most recent change. The information in this patient summary was taken from the health professional version, which is reviewed regularly and updated as needed, by the PDQ Pediatric Treatment Editorial Board.
CONTENTS
- General Information About Rare Cancers of Childhood
Rare cancers of childhood are cancers not usually seen in children.
Cancer in children and adolescents is rare. Since 1975, the number of new cases of childhood cancer has slowly increased. Since 1975, the number of deaths from childhood cancer has decreased by more than half.
The cancers listed in this summary are so rare that most children's hospitals are likely to see less than a handful of some types in several years. Because these cancers are so rare, there is not a lot of information about what treatment works best. A child's treatment is often based on what has been learned from treating other children. Sometimes, information is available only from reports of the diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of one child or a small group of children who were given the same type of treatment.
Many different cancers are listed in this summary. They are grouped by where they are found in the body.
The Rare Cancers of Childhood Treatment summary has been separated into individual summaries for each topic. Please use the lists below or the following link to find the individual summaries: https://www.cancer.gov/publications/pdq/information-summaries/pediatric-treatment.
- Rare Cancers of the Head and Neck
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Nasopharyngeal Cancer
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Nasopharyngeal Cancer Treatment for more information.
Esthesioneuroblastoma
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Esthesioneuroblastoma Treatment for more information.
Thyroid Cancer
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Thyroid Cancer Treatment for more information.
Oral Cavity Cancer
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Oral Cavity Cancer Treatment for more information.
Salivary Gland Tumors
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Salivary Gland Tumors Treatment for more information.
Laryngeal Cancer and Papillomatosis
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Laryngeal Tumors Treatment for more information.
Midline Tract Cancer with NUT Gene Changes (NUT Midline Carcinoma)
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Midline Tract Carcinoma with NUT Gene Changes Treatment for more information.
- Rare Cancers of the Chest
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Breast Cancer
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Breast Cancer Treatment for more information.
Lung Cancer
See the following PDQ summaries for more information:
Esophageal Cancer
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Esophageal Cancer Treatment for more information.
Thymoma and Thymic Carcinoma
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Thymoma and Thymic Carcinoma Treatment for more information.
Cardiac (Heart) Tumors
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Cardiac (Heart) Tumors Treatment for more information.
- Rare Cancers of the Abdomen
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Adrenocortical Carcinoma
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Adrenocortical Carcinoma Treatment for more information.
Stomach (Gastric) Cancer
See Childhood Stomach Cancer for more information.
Pancreatic Cancer
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Pancreatic Cancer Treatment for more information.
Colorectal Cancer
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Colorectal Cancer Treatment for more information.
Gastrointestinal Carcinoid Tumors
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Gastrointestinal Neuroendocrine Tumors Treatment for more information.
Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors Treatment for more information.
- Rare Cancers of the Reproductive and Urinary Systems
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Bladder Cancer
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Bladder Cancer for more information.
Testicular Cancer
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Testicular Cancer Treatment for more information.
Ovarian Cancer
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Ovarian Cancer Treatment for more information.
Cervical and Vaginal Cancer
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Cervical and Vaginal Cancers for more information.
- Other Rare Cancers of Childhood
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Mesothelioma
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Mesothelioma Treatment for more information.
Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Syndromes
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia (MEN) Syndromes Treatment for more information.
Pheochromocytoma and Paraganglioma
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Pheochromocytoma and Paraganglioma Treatment for more information.
Skin Cancer (Melanoma, Basal Cell Carcinoma, and Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Skin)
See the following PDQ summaries for more information:
Intraocular (Uveal) Melanoma
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Intraocular (Uveal) Melanoma Treatment for more information.
Chordoma
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Chordoma Treatment for more information.
Carcinoma of Unknown Primary
See the PDQ summary on Childhood Carcinoma of Unknown Primary Treatment for more information.
- To Learn More About Childhood Cancer
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For more information from the National Cancer Institute about rare cancers of childhood, see the following:
For more childhood cancer information and other general cancer resources, see the following:
- About This PDQ Summary
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About PDQ
Physician Data Query (PDQ) is the National Cancer Institute's (NCI's) comprehensive cancer information database. The PDQ database contains summaries of the latest published information on cancer prevention, detection, genetics, treatment, supportive care, and complementary and alternative medicine. Most summaries come in two versions. The health professional versions have detailed information written in technical language. The patient versions are written in easy-to-understand, nontechnical language. Both versions have cancer information that is accurate and up to date and most versions are also available in Spanish.
PDQ is a service of the NCI. The NCI is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIH is the federal government’s center of biomedical research. The PDQ summaries are based on an independent review of the medical literature. They are not policy statements of the NCI or the NIH.
Purpose of This Summary
This PDQ cancer information summary has current information about the treatment of rare cancers of childhood. It is meant to inform and help patients, families, and caregivers. It does not give formal guidelines or recommendations for making decisions about health care.
Reviewers and Updates
Editorial Boards write the PDQ cancer information summaries and keep them up to date. These Boards are made up of experts in cancer treatment and other specialties related to cancer. The summaries are reviewed regularly and changes are made when there is new information. The date on each summary ("Updated") is the date of the most recent change.
The information in this patient summary was taken from the health professional version, which is reviewed regularly and updated as needed, by the PDQ Pediatric Treatment Editorial Board.
Clinical Trial Information
A clinical trial is a study to answer a scientific question, such as whether one treatment is better than another. Trials are based on past studies and what has been learned in the laboratory. Each trial answers certain scientific questions in order to find new and better ways to help cancer patients. During treatment clinical trials, information is collected about the effects of a new treatment and how well it works. If a clinical trial shows that a new treatment is better than one currently being used, the new treatment may become "standard." Patients may want to think about taking part in a clinical trial. Some clinical trials are open only to patients who have not started treatment.
Clinical trials can be found online at NCI's website. For more information, call the Cancer Information Service (CIS), NCI's contact center, at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).
Permission to Use This Summary
PDQ is a registered trademark. The content of PDQ documents can be used freely as text. It cannot be identified as an NCI PDQ cancer information summary unless the whole summary is shown and it is updated regularly. However, a user would be allowed to write a sentence such as “NCI’s PDQ cancer information summary about breast cancer prevention states the risks in the following way: [include excerpt from the summary].”
The best way to cite this PDQ summary is:
PDQ® Pediatric Treatment Editorial Board. PDQ Rare Cancers of Childhood Treatment. Bethesda, MD: National Cancer Institute. Updated <MM/DD/YYYY>. Available at: https://www.cancer.gov/types/childhood-cancers/patient/rare-childhood-cancers-pdq. Accessed <MM/DD/YYYY>. [PMID: 26389276]
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Disclaimer
The information in these summaries should not be used to make decisions about insurance reimbursement. More information on insurance coverage is available on Cancer.gov on the Managing Cancer Care page.
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