Elizabeth Rhodes from Michigan was 16 years old when she was diagnosed with stage 4 blood cancer, which affects people after 60. According to doctors, this disease is increasingly being found in children and young people, writes the Daily Mail.
The girl's relatives described the signs of the disease. That's when they realized that something was wrong. According to them, Elizabeth began to feel overtired, lacked energy, and became very weak. She sweated profusely at night and had a constant fever.
The schoolgirl was hospitalized with swollen lymph nodes. She was diagnosed with stage IV peripheral T-cell lymphoma, or an aggressive type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCL) are a rare group of lymphoproliferative diseases. They are characterized by an aggressive course and an unfavorable prognosis.
When the diagnosis was made, the cancer cells had already spread throughout the organs.
The girl spent nine months in the hospital, she was prescribed chemotherapy, radiation, and then a bone marrow transplant. Now she is in remission, but doctors fear that the disease may return.
Dr. Joshua Goldman, an oncologist at Michigan Medicine who helped treat Elizabeth, noted that “there is no standard treatment for this specific disease for people her age.”
Data show that the number of blood cancers being diagnosed in children is on the rise: A 2016 study found that childhood leukemia cases have increased by about 0.7 percent each year since 1975. Leukemia attacks the bone marrow, which makes white blood cells.
A separate 2008 study found that the incidence of all peripheral non-Hodgkin lymphomas jumped 280 percent between 1992 and 2005 across all age groups.
The Cancer Progress Report, published by the American Association for Cancer Research, notes “growing concern” about the rise in some childhood cancers.
Previously, doctors linked childhood cancer to a combination of genetics and bad luck. Now scientists write that “the steady increase in incidence is a strong indicator that the origin of childhood leukemia is influenced by more than just genetics.”
In particular, studies have pointed to a potential link between cancer and exposure to chemicals such as benzene, which can be present in cosmetics and hand sanitizers.
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