Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2024 July 30

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July 30

Rare quasi-cancer disease in children

Friends recently received a diagnosis for their toddler, and they told me what the doctor had called it, but now I can't remember its name. I know that it has a Wikipedia article, because I read the article when they first told me.

All I remember of the little guy's symptoms is that he frequently has joint pain at unexpected times. The doctor explained to them that the disease causes lesions in random places (including in the bones, if I remember rightly), and because these bulges occur in places where they shouldn't be, some interfere with ordinary movement and cause pain. The disease is treated with chemotherapy, and apparently there's some debate among the experts over whether it should be classified as a kind of cancer. I think the doctor gave a reasonably good prognosis for the disease with treatment and a dreadful prognosis without treatment. I don't remember if the Wikipedia article mentioned if the cause is known, or if it is, what causes it. It's not so rare that the exact number of diagnoses is known, but it's classified as rare (at least here in Australia) because it occurs only once per several thousand individuals. I've looked through Category:Syndromes with musculoskeletal abnormalities without finding it.

While this desk doesn't provide medical advice, remember that I'm not asking for diagnosis: I'm basically starting with a diagnosis and trying to work out the name. This is similar to the strep-infection question from Wikipedia:Kainaw's criterion. Nyttend (talk) 19:27, 30 July 2024 (UTC)

Histiocytosis? Ruslik_Zero 20:39, 30 July 2024 (UTC)

Ah, it's Langerhans cell histiocytosis. Now I remember my confusion when talking with the friends, since initially I thought they meant it was something pancreatic. Thanks for the pointer! Nyttend (talk) 21:35, 30 July 2024 (UTC)