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The information below is intended to help make you aware of the realities of pediatric cancer and the need for new therapies and strategies to save the lives of more children; to spare families the despair and devastation that accompanies cancer's ruthless attack on innocent life.
· Cancer remains the number one disease that claims the lives of our children. Each year cancer kills more children under the age of 18 than asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis and AIDS combined.
· Pediatric cancer is referred to as an “orphan disease” because there is little or no profit to be made by the pharmaceutical companies and the reason why they ignore pediatric cancers for the most part.
· The government has paid little attention to pediatric cancer research and it has been grossly under funded.
· Each year in the U.S., nearly 13,000 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer. That’s the equivalent of two average size classrooms diagnosed each school day.
· Today about 75% of children diagnosed with cancer become long-term survivors yet in the U.S. cancer remains the leading cause of death from one year through adolescence; more than any other disease. In the early 1950s, less than 10 percent of childhood cancer patients could be cured, proof that research can and is making a difference.
· The genetic origins of human cancer manifested by the discovery of cancer causing oncogenes and mutated tumor suppressor genes were first discovered in uniquely pediatric cancers.
· Historically, some of the most basic and essential treatment strategies now employed in the fight against cancer – such as multi-agent chemotherapy and combined modality therapy – were developed through pediatric cancer research.
· Pediatric cancer research continues to add immense value to the science of oncology, unlocking the secrets of this terrible disease.
· Leukemia’s, tumors of the brain and nervous system, the lymphatic system, kidneys, bones and muscles are the most common childhood cancers.
· In the U.S., Combined, the cancers of children, adolescents and young adults to age 20 are the sixth most common cancer in the U.S.
· Breakthroughs in pediatric oncology will undoubtedly continue to progress the diagnosis and treatment of adult cancers. Many of the principles in therapy used today in treating adults were first developed and tested for children.
· During the last ten years, more than 32,000 children with cancer have been enrolled into 138 different completed clinical trials.
· Only two to three percent of adults with cancer are enrolled in clinical research trials, whereas the majority of children diagnosed are enrolled.
· Recent reports indicate that nearly two-thirds of childhood cancer survivors experience significant medical problems resulting from their original cancer and/or its treatment.
In achieving our goals together we will all share in a future free of the misery, tragedy, and loss of innocence and life caused by childhood cancer.
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