Warning Signs! The Top Ten Childhood Cancer Symptoms That Can Be Missed

It should be noted, however, that the purpose of this article is not to rank the most commonly missed childhood cancer symptoms, but rather to share stories of symptoms that could be missed in order to inform. Additionally, the signs and symptoms listed below are not exclusive to the cancers mentioned. Still, you should always bring up any changes to your child’s health with their doctors.

Signs of Childhood Cancers

1. Flu-like symptoms: Joey Moran, 9, is currently battling a cancerous brain tumor after experiencing flu-like symptoms and an absence seizure. His mother, Emma Moran, said “he wasn't feeling like himself” a week before he was diagnosed. Symptoms of brain tumors are often caused by increased pressure in the skull. Symptoms may include headache, nausea, vomiting, blurred vision, balance problems, personality or behavior changes, seizures, drowsiness or even comas.
2.  A "glow" in the pupil. A 1-year-old boy named Cillian Coyles had a "glow" that would come and go over his left pupil before he was diagnosed with a type of eye cancer called retinoblastoma. "Last summer, I started noticing a glow to his eye but it wasn't very often at all and I kind of put it down to a light reflection," his mother, Leonnie Ord, said. "Then I started to notice it a little bit more and we moved to a house, which had a lot more light and then I started noticing it more. It was a white glow over all his pupil, it was as if he had a cat's eye." Two of the more common signs and symptoms for retinoblastoma include white pupillary reflex (leukocoria) when the pupil appears white or pink instead of red when you shine a light in the eye and lazy eye (strabismus) when the eyes don't appear to look in the same direction.
3. Itchy skin. Ryan Thompson, 14, was diagnosed with stage two Hodgkin lymphoma after his mother started taking note of odd symptoms like itchy skin, swollen glands and weight loss. His mother, Audrey, thought he was suffering from an allergy, but his condition did not improve when she tried things like switching out her laundry detergent. "I would never have thought that itching or weight loss was a sign of cancer," she said. "I just want other parents to be aware of the signs. Ryan was diagnosed quite early, but if it went on longer we could have been in a different situation.” Early symptoms of lymphoma can be tricky to notice; they may include swollen lymph nodes, fatigue, unexplained weight loss or itchy skin.
4. Trouble exercising. Pediatric oncology social worker Yadhira Huerta's 13-year-old son, Diego, was diagnosed with leukemia after having chest pains while exercising. "One day all of a sudden he's struggling to exercise, struggling to breathe, I didn't think much of it," Huerta said. "I obviously didn't think it was cancer, but when my husband took him to the doctor we got the news that he was going to have to see the doctor that I work with, and that was an eye opener for me.” Leukemia is a type of blood cancer. Symptoms vary depending on the type of leukemia, but general symptoms for the disease include: Fever or chills, persistent fatigue, weakness, frequent or severe infections, losing weight without trying, swollen lymph nodes, an enlarged liver or spleen, easy bleeding or bruising, recurrent nosebleeds, tiny red spots in your skin (petechiae), excessive sweating as well as bone pain or tenderness.
5. Decreased appetite. Grace, a 2-year-old girl from Worcestershire, England, was diagnosed with hepatoblastoma, a rare cancer of the liver, after losing her appetite and becoming more tired than normal. "The doctors reassured us that it was constipation and we just thought that it was all sorted," her mother said. "Because what she has in children is so rare, to some degree I am angry it was missed." Symptoms of hepatoblastoma can include a large mass in the abdomen, swollen abdomen, weight loss, decreased appetite, vomiting, jaundice (yellowing of eyes and skin), itchy skin, anemia and back pain.
6. A swollen face. Childhood cancer survivor Jake Whittingham, 8, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) after his parents noticed Jake’s face was swollen and rushed him to the hospital. There, his doctors discovered his heart and kidneys had begun to fail. "They actually saved his life that day and it was touch and go about whether he'd get through that day," the boy's uncle, Aidan Whittingham, said. The T-cell subtype of ALL often affects the thymus, a small organ in the middle of the chest. An enlarged thymus can press on the trachea, which can lead to coughing or trouble breathing. If the thymus is enlarged, it may press on the superior vena cava (SVC), a large vein that carries blood from the head and arms back to the heart, causing the blood to "back up" in the veins. This is known as SVC syndrome which can lead to swelling in the face, neck, arms and upper chest (sometimes with a bluish-red color).
7. Abnormal bleeding. After losing her 10-year-old daughter Sophie to cancer, Charlotte Fairall has been on a mission to educate about childhood cancer. Sophie was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma in September 2020 after experiencing consistent stomach pains, nausea and abnormal bleeding that doctors originally put down to her period. She passed in September 2021. "She had some of the real red flags," Fairall said. "Abnormal bleeding is definitely a red flag, stomach pain and consistent pains in the stomach was another one, and that feeling of nausea.” Childhood rhabdomyosarcoma is a disease in which malignant (cancerous) cells form in muscle tissue. Possible signs of childhood rhabdomyosarcoma can include: a lump or swelling that keeps getting bigger or does not go away (it may be painful), crossed-eyes or bulging of the eye, headache, trouble urinating or having bowel movements and blood in the urine and bleeding in the nose, throat, vagina or rectum.
8. A stomach lump. Blake and Abigail Estevez are parents to a beautiful baby girl named Blakely who was diagnosed with a Wilms tumor, also called nephroblastoma, after Abigail asked Blakely's doctors to look at the lump in her stomach. "I could just tell the words that they were about to tell us," Abigail said. A Wilms tumor is the most common type of kidney cancer in children. These tumors often grow quite large before causing any symptoms, but signs and symptoms can include: swelling or a large lump in the abdomen (belly), fever, nausea, loss of appetite, shortness of breath, constipation, blood in the urine and high blood pressure.
9. Bone or joint pain. Sona Kocinsky, a childhood cancer survivor, previously opened up to SurvivorNet about her pediatric osteosarcoma journey. Her diagnosis came after she developed severe pain and a bump in her shoulder. Children and teens with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer, may experience the following symptoms or signs, though some children and teens with osteosarcoma do not have any of these changes: pain in a bone or joint that gets worse over time, especially if the pain is severe enough that it interferes with sleep, a noticeable mass or lump in an arm or leg, particularly in the areas around a shoulder or knee, a broken bone with no injury to explain how it occurred and back pain or a loss of bowel or bladder control.
10. A myriad of odd symptoms. Sometimes a cancer diagnosis can come after a variety of out-of-the-ordinary symptoms. One-year-old Ellyannah was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma in September after having various symptoms that her mother originally thought were related to COVID-19. "She was not herself. It was the weirdest thing," Jamie Scholl, Ellyannah's mother, said. "She wouldn't drink much and she was, like, puking randomly. And she was screaming and moving her muscles like things hurt her." Symptoms of neuroblastoma, the most common cancer in infants (younger than 1 year old), can include a lump or swelling in the child's belly that doesn't seem to hurt, swelling in the legs or in the upper chest, neck and face, problems with breathing or swallowing, weight loss, not eating or complaining about feeling full, problems with bowel movements or urinating, pain in bones, lumps or bumps under the skin (which may appear blue), drooping eyelid and small pupil (the black area in the center of the eye) in one eye, problems being able to feel or move parts of the body as well as eyes that appear to bulge and/or bruising around the eyes.

Advocating for Your Child