PEDIATRIC CANCER STATISTICS
Did you know that today, for every 4 Americans, there is one diagnosed with cancer?
Every day, over 250,000 lives under 20 are affected by cancer.
- It accounts for 1 of every 4 deaths.
Childhood cancer occurs regularly, randomly and spares no ethnic group, socio-economic class, or geographic region.
- Each school day, around 700 children are diagnosed with cancer! Image an entire school stricken daily and about 250 children die every day.
Childhood cancer is not a single disease, there are many different types. Common adult cancers are extremely rare in children.
- Many cancers are almost exclusively found in children.
The causes of most childhood cancers are unknown and at present, childhood cancer cannot be prevented.
- Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children under the age of 15 in the United States other than accidents.
We know that early diagnosis is crucial to any real chance of surviving, to keep it from spreading and because of how aggressive the cancer is.
- Yet 80% of children diagnosed with cancer already have metastatic disease (meaning it spread already) compared to only 20% of adults.
The information provided about surviving cancer can be confusing. Survival rates have improved but many times the survival marker is only 5 years and with the already mentioned problems with early diagnosis, many children don't make it 5 years.
- For brain cancer, the 5 year survival rate is 30-80%.
With the type LuciaGirl had, the numbers were more like 1 to 3 years. She made it 9 months.
Despite these facts, pediatrics only gets about 30 cents out of each research dollar!
(National Cancer Institute 2014)
(American Cancer Society 2009)
http://www.cancer.gov/research/progress/snapshots/pediatric
http://www.cancer.org/research/cancerfactsstatistics/cancerfactsfigures2014
