Cancer Facts

Cancer Facts That You Need To Know

Cancer in children is more common that most people realize. Childhood cancers behave very differently than adult cancers and the survival statistics are not as promising. Furthermore, the incidence of childhood cancer seems to be increasing. Please join us in increasing awareness of childhood cancer facts and statistics.

-Cancer is the number one killer of children by disease. It is the second leading cause of all childhood deaths exceeded only by accidents.

-One in 330 children will develop cancer before the age of 20.

-On average, 46 children are diagnosed with cancer every day in the United States.

-14,000 children will be diagnosed this year with cancer. That is the size of 2 average classrooms every single day, year after year.

-Currently there is between 30-40,000 children being treated for cancer in the US.

-Pharmaceutical companies fund over 50% of adult cancer research, but virtually nothing for kids.

-Pediatric cancer research does not receive nearly as much funding as adult cancer research projects. Rhabdoid research dollars are scarce as most money is diverted to well-publicized adult forms of cancer.

-Each year, about 3,000 children die from cancer - more than from asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, congenital anomalies, and pediatric AIDS combined.

-Only about 20% of adults with cancer show evidence that the disease has spread to distant sites on the body at diagnosis yet 80% of children are diagnosed with advanced disease.

-In the past 20 years only one new cancer drug has been approved for pediatric use.

-Only 3% of the budget from the National Cancer Institute goes towards Pediatric Cancer research. (That's 3% for ALL kinds of Pediatric Cancers combined!)

-The incidence of childhood cancer is increasing. The cause of this is unknown.

-Pediatric cancer funding is nominal in comparison to other more publicized diseases such as pediatric AIDS or juvenile diabetes which increases awareness each year.

-Most adult cancers result from lifestyle factors such as smoking, diet, occupation, and exposure to cancer-causing agents. The cause of most childhood cancers in unknown.

-Approximately 70% of children with cancer participate in research trials compared to only 3% of adult cancer patients. As a result, many of the advances in adult cancer treatments are due to breakthroughs in childhood cancer research.

-The government recently CUT the budget for Childhood Cancer research.

-As a nation, we spend $14 BILLION per year on the space program, but only $35 MILLION on childhood cancer research per year.

Did you know?

Although the large, broad cancer organizations do great things, very little of their resources go to Pediatric Cancer Research. The American Cancer Society provides only 1.85% of dollars spent on research, to be spread over all 12 types of childhood cancers.

If you had donated $100 to Relay for Life hoping to show your support for the child honorary chairpersons, $12.50 would have gone to research adult cancers, while only 70 cents would have gone to childhood cancer research. How much of that 70 cents would be for Rhabdoid research? None! (*July 2005, Research Department, American Cancer Society, Inc.)

Bankruptcy??

An estimated 80 million people have health insurance insufficient to cover the costs of a catastrophic illness such as childhood cancer. It is estimated that as many as 50% of families with children battling cancer will be forced to file bankruptcy!