Clinical features of malignant disease in childhood

Childhood cancers can be difficult to recognize early. Unlike adult cancers, where risk factors and screening play a bigger role, in children the signs tend to overlap with everyday illnesses.

There are certain patterns and warning signs that doctors should watch out for including;

• persistent tiredness, pallor, or unusual bruising
• frequent infections, fevers that don’t resolve, bone pain, or swelling of lymph nodes
• persistent headaches, especially in the morning, vomiting without much nausea, problems with balance, or changes in vision
• an abdominal mass, with or without pain
• localized bone pain that doesn’t go away and may be worse at night, sometimes with swelling or tenderness.

The key point is that childhood cancers often mimic more common illnesses at first—fevers, aches, swollen glands—but what makes them concerning is persistence, progression, or unusual combinations of symptoms.