Pediatric Cancer is a chronic illness with long term morbidity both from disease, its treatment or both. A child is not simply a small adult, but physiologically different and in a process of growth and maturation in several different spheres. This has many implications in pediatric cancer treatment. Diagnosis of cancer in a child has many long reaching effects on parents, siblings, and the family dynamics. Optimal pediatric management takes all these factors into consideration.
Classification is based on a combination of morphologic, immunologic and genetic characteristics.
The commonest childhood ALL is derived from a B cell precursor. This can be confirmed by flow cytometry a technique by which the presence of specific surface antigens can be detected on the surface of a cell. Blood brain barrier at periphery of tumor 2. Low mitosis rate at centre of tumor 3. The cells involved may look like normal small lymphocytes, but more commonly display features of different stages of transformation that normal B or T cells go through following exposure to antigen.