However, the path often begins with the first symptoms that make the parent take the child to see a doctor.

The signs and symptoms of cancer often resemble typical childhood illnesses and injuries. Due to how rare childhood cancer is, the family doctor may not even consider it at first.

Learning about your child’s disease may be overwhelming. You may not know what to do nor how to get through it.

Be honest and open,

Talk about the disease and the treatment, using words that your child understands,

Give detailed information basing on the age and development of your child,

Children who are sick must know that they are loved, supported and surrounded by people who care for them.

The first step in cancer diagnosis is a physical examination. Your health care provider will also ask about your child's health history.

To diagnose cancer, your doctor may order different types of tests, including blood tests, imaging tests, and biopsies.

If For most types of disease, a biopsy is the only way to make an accurate diagnosis. A biopsy is a specialized diagnostic procedure that involves taking a small sample of tissue that is sent to a laboratory.

Ask your care team questions about the tests and results. Find out what you can about the results so you can take part in planning and support your child.

You are not alone. Your doctors can support you and provide assistance.

Your child will learn a lot from the tone of voice and facial expressions.

Remain calm when talking to your child.

Tears are okay – but if they come, explain why it is that you’re crying. You can say that it is natural for the parents to feel sad when their child is sick or that people are nervous when there are many changes around them. Tears are the means to express emotions.

It is important that your child knows that he or she did nothing to provoke the disease and that it is not their fault that people around them are sad.

They are carefully designed scientific examinations whose objective is to test experimental treatment on a group of patients suffering from a specific disease. Experimental treatment is one that has not yet undergone full examination that would allow it to become a standard medical care procedure.

Often, these are newly elaborated remedies. These could also be already existing medications, originally intended to treat different diseases or different groups of patients.

The trials may also concern finding ways to enhance efficiency of operations, radiotherapy or other kinds of treatment using different methods, instruments, and equipment. Sometimes, clinical tests study various doses, treatment schedules and combination of therapies.

It is important to understand how clinical trials differ from regular medical care. The aim of the research is to improve the way diseases are treated in the future.

The entire group of patients must follow a very specific protocol. In standard medical care, the benefits of treatment are known and doctors make care decisions based on the patient's individual needs. In a clinical trial, the treatment is experimental and the benefits and side effects are not fully known.

Sometimes patients may receive usual medical care along with the experimental treatment. In other trials, patients may only receive experimental therapy. Methods will vary depending on the research protocol and phase of the clinical trial.