The SJD Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona, at Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, is the first pediatric cancer center in Spain. It is also a pioneering international center of reference in Europe in the treatment and research of childhood cancer.
It has a research laboratory that has been working for more than 20 years to answer the many unknowns posed by cancers that affect children. It carries out a research model called translational, consisting of giving specific answers to each of the unknowns posed by the cancers suffered by the children cared for at the center. In this way, the research can be transferred to the patient more quickly, also becoming a fundamental part of the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis process of each case.
Childhood cancer, the great unknown
Childhood cancer is random, unpredictable, and very different from adult cancer. It is a rare disease, since it affects 1 child for every 200 adults, and it is caused by an unfortunate chance during the embryonic development process, and not during the aging process of the cells, as happens in adulthood.
Despite being a minority disease in children, the truth is that cancer is the leading cause of death in children in most developed countries. A disease that is estimated to affect 400,000 new children each year around the world -although only 50% can be diagnosed-, 1,200 of them in Spain.
Currently, 80% of boys and girls who have cancer manage to overcome it. However, many of them do so with great consequences that will affect them and condition their adult lives. That is why research is the only way to ensure that treatments are less and less aggressive and may one day cure 100% of cases.
