Deformities common in children with cancer

Deformities such as drooping eyelids and asymmetric limbs are common in children with cancer. There are a large number of children that get affected by cancer every year, across the world. Cancer takes away a child's strength, destroys organs and bones, and weakens the body's defences against other illnesses. Research has suggested that children with cancer are more likely than other children to have deformities, such as droopy eyelids and legs of different lengths. There could be genetic defects or early prenatal environmental factors that could influence the occurrence of these problems. To assess the occurrence of deformities in children suffering from cancer, Dutch and British researchers compared the rate of deformities among 175 children newly diagnosed with cancer, 898 long-term survivors of childhood cancer, and 1,007 healthy schoolchildren by a thorough physical examination looking for 683 abnormalities. The results showed that major abnormalities were present in 27 percent of patients and in 16 percent of healthy children; the corresponding figures for minor abnormalities were 65 and 56 percent. Cancer patients were also significantly more likely to have two or more deformities. Fourteen deformities were significantly associated with childhood cancer. Among them, droopy eye lids, asymmetric lower limbs, Sydney crease (an abnormal crease on the palm), broad foot, and port-wine stain (a reddish discoloration of the skin) were found to be nine times more common in the cancer patients. Thus, by linking such deformities to cancer, doctors could identify children who are prone to developing cancer later on in life.