Facts About Pediatric Cancer
- Cancer is the number one killer of children by disease.
- Each year, about 3000 children die from cancer.
- On average, 46 children are diagnosed with cancer everyday in the United States.
- 76 percent of children diagnosed with a brain tumor are younger than 15.
- Childhood cancer is increasing. Cause unknown.
- Every day ninechildren in the U.S. are diagnosed with a brain tumor.
- There are more than 120 different types of brain tumors, making effective treatment very complicated.
- More than 359,000 people in the U.S. were living with a diagnosis of a primary brain and central nervous system tumor in the year 2000.
- The combined five-year survival rates for childhood brain tumors has increased slowly, from 54 percent to approximately 60 percent.(3) However, for some pediatric brain tumors (e.g., brain stem gliomas, atypical teritoid/rhabdoid and glioblastoma multifome), long-term survival rates remain below 20 percent.
- Because brain tumors are located at the control center for thought, emotion and movement, their effects on a child’s physical and cognitive abilities can be devastating.
- The government recently CUT the budget for Childhood Cancer research.
- Only 3% of the budget from the National Cancer Institute goes towards Pediatric Cancer research. 3% for all kinds of cancer combined.
- Currently there is between 30-40,000 children being treated for cancer.
- Improving the outlook for children with brain tumors requires research into the causes of and better treatments for brain tumors.
- 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.