The SJD Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona, from the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, is the First Pediatric Cancer Center in Spain. It is also a center of international reference pioneer 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 respond to the multiple unknowns posed by cancers that affect children. It carries out a research model called translational, consisting of giving concrete answers to each of the unknowns posed by the cancers suffered by the children treated at the center. In this way, the investigation 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
Cancellation is random, unpredictable and very different from adult cancer. It is a minority disease, since it affects 1 child for every 200 adults, and is caused by unfortunate chance during the process of embryonic development, and not during the aging process of the cells, as in the adulthood.
Despite being a minority disease in children, the truth is that cancer is the first cause of death in the child population in most developed countries. A disease that is estimated to affect 400,000 new children around the world every year –although only 50% can be diagnosed-, 1,200 of them in Spain.
Currently, 80% of children who have cancer manage to overcome it. However, many of them do it with great sequels that will affect them and will condition their adult life. That is why research is the only way that exists to ensure that treatments are less and less aggressive and can, one day, came 100% of the cases.