‘3,000 children diagnose leukemia in Turkiye every year’

By Esma Kucuksahin

KAYSERI, Turkiye (AA) – Over 3,000 children in Turkiye are diagnosed suffering from cancer every year, as leukemia or blood cancer has been found affecting children as young as just one year old. The disease has been even detected in newborn babies.

According to experts the disease mainly occurs in people below 20 years and in the elderly, who have crossed 60 years.

According to a written statement by the Foundation for Children with Leukemia (LOSEV) on the occasion of International Childhood Cancer Day, childhood cancers are most common in the first five years of age.

Drawing attention to the fact that leukemia is the most common type of cancer in children, the statement said: "The cases we have witnessed show that leukemia incidence has dropped below the age of one. We regret to say that leukemia has even started to appear in newborn babies."

Emphasizing that early recognition of symptoms in childhood cancers affects the success of treatment as in other types of cancer, it pointed out that increasing parental awareness plays a life-saving role.

* Writing by Seda Sevencan