I was diagnosed with a stage 4 blood cancer that affects elderly people - but I'm only 16

A new report this week found America is turning the tide on several major cancers. 

But while older people's cancer rates are falling, a more worrying trend has emerged — cancers are rising in children and young adults, including blood cancers.

And because the youngsters are so young and historically at such low risk, their diagnoses is often not made until it is too late.

Alizabeth Rhodes, from Michigan, is one of the growing number of American minors to be struck by the disease that normally hits the elderly.

The 16-year-old's family first knew something was wrong when she started to be exhuasted and lack energy far more than usual.

She was taken to the ER in her home state with 'non-specific' symptoms at the age of 16 years — which may have included swollen areas in her neck and armpit and a fever or night sweats.

Tests revealed she had stage four peripheral T-cell lymphoma, or an aggressive type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma where T-cells, a type of which blood cell, start to divide uncontrollably.

By the time it was diagnosed, the cancerous cells had already spread to multiple organs.

She was taken out of school in July 2023, after the cancer was detected, and spent nine months in and out of hospital receiving chemotherapy, radiation and then a bone marrow transplant.

Ms Rhodes is now in remission with doctors describing her as 'extremely resilient' — while her family said she was a 'real fighter'.

But questions remain over why the youngster — who is now 17 and is still yet to return to the classroom — developed the cancer.

Fewer than one in every 100,000 Americans are diagnosed with the disease every year, the vast majority of whom are 60 years of age or older. 

It is extremely rare for the cancer to be detected in children.

Dr Joshua Goldman, an oncologist at Michigan Medicine who helped to treat her, said: 'There are maybe a handful of cases like hers and no standard treatment for this specific disease for someone her age.'

At the same time, data shows that blood cancers diagnosed among children are rising — with a 2016 study finding leukemia diagnoses in children have risen by about 0.7 percent every year since 1975. Leukemia is affects the bone marrow which manufactures white blood cells.

A separate study from 2008 found that the incidence of all peripheral non-Hodgkin lymphoma — Ms Rhodes cancer — jumped 280 percent between 1992 and 2005 across all age groups.

And the Cancer Progress Report released this week from the American Association for Cancer Research — which works to prevent and cure cancer — also noted a 'rising concern' over the rising incidence of certain cancers in children.

It fits into a wider trend of surges in cancers among children and young adults — including the emerging colon cancer epidemic and the surge in non-melanoma skin cancer.

Previously, doctors were linking childhood cancers to a combination of genetics and bad luck.

But in the 2016 paper on rising leukemia cases, the scientists wrote that 'the steady increase in incidence is a strong indicator that the origins of childhood leukemia are influenced not only by genetics'.

Other scientists have suggested the rise may be down to a possible link between childhood leukemia and exposure to pesticides, either during pregnancy or early childhood — according to the American Cancer Society.

Studies have also pointed to a potential link between the cancer and exposure to chemicals such as benzene, which can be present in beauty products and hand sanitizers.

Revealing her case, Ms Rhodes said: 'I wanted to share what I was going through to help people understand. It's a lot harder than you think.

'I sometimes felt like giving up but realized I couldn't. I want to tell other people to never give up.'

She added: 'It was a long journey and I know I'm not finished yet, but I'm doing good and I'm glad to be home.

'I finally got here, but I didn't do it alone.'

Dr Mark Lugt, an oncologist who was also on her team, said: 'This treatment is very disruptive to teenager's lives.

'We pull them out of school for over a year, restrict a lot of activities and ask them to give up a lot.

'Lizzy always handled everything exceptionally well. It was nice to see how much support she had from family and friends and how she maintained these connections at the hospital through social media and other ways.'

Ms Rhodes was asked to attend school classes online during her cancer battle.

This was because the chemotherapy and radiation therapy she was on had severely weakened her immune system, meaning that normal germs that most children can fight off could spark a serious infection.

She is now on the road to recovery, but has been told to still be careful of returning to school or mixing with friends because her immune system may struggle to battle off any diseases that she picks up.

The US is not unique in the childhood cancer surge, with upticks also been detected in the UK — where cases are up 15 percent since the 1990s — and other western countries.

While some experts have blamed environmental exposure, others have pointed to other factors such as fewer children dying early in life and youngsters not being exposed to diseases until later in life than before modern society.

Dr Alastair Sutcliffe, a pediatrician at University College London, said previously: 'Of course, cancer is an awful thing for any child and their family to go through.

'But one reason for this is that, unfortunately, there are many other conditions these days which no longer kill as many children — such as premature births and infectious diseases.

'And although cancer case numbers may be going up, overall childhood mortality is decreasing, with children's cancer being an area where there have been huge triumphs.'

To treat Ms Rhodes' cancer, doctors used chemotherapy and radiation to kill the cancerous cells.

A bone transplant was also performed from a matched donor to add new immune cells to the body that doctors said could help to hunt down and kill any still surviving cancer cells.

Peripheral non-Hodgkin lymphoma has an overall survival rate of at least 82 percent if it is caught in the early stages, before it has spread to other areas of the body. 

But if it isn't detected until it has spread to other organs, as in Ms Rhodes case, the overall survival rate drops to just 33 percent. 

Dr Lugt said: 'Our outcomes for this diagnosis aren't often favorable.

'These types of cancers are very rare in pediatrics and, because they are so rare, they don't always get studied.

'That means there are a lot of questions around what to do for children with rare malignancies that don't behave the same way as they do in adults.

'Determining the most appropriate treatment course for patients like Alizabeth can be challenging because we don't have as much information.'