Childhood Cancer Facts

Cancer is the number one disease killer of children between the ages of 1 and 14 in the US.


Cancer is the second leading cause of childhood death exceeded only by accidents.


Approximately 12,400 children and young people were diagnosed with cancer in the year 2000, and 2,300 children died from the disease.


Approximately 1 in 330 young people will be diagnosed with cancer before the age of 19


On the average, one in every four elementary schools has a child with cancer. The average high school has two students who are current or former cancer patients.


Nationally, the incidence of cancer in children is more than 20 times greater than the incidence of AIDS in children.


Childhood cancers affect more potential patient-years of life than any other cancer except breast and lung cancer.


Cancer in childhood occurs regularly, randomly and spares no ethnic group, socioeconomic class, or geographic region.


The cause of most childhood cancers is unknown, and, at present, childhood cancer cannot be prevented.


Progress in treating childhood cancer has been dramatic in the last three decades.


Cancer is the most curable chronic disease of childhood, more curable than asthma, congenital anomalies, epilepsy, cystic fibrosis, or diabetes.


The rate at which children die of cancer has decreased below 20% of the rate at which children are diagnosed. Currently the overall cure rate for all childhood cancers is around 70%.


If the current rate of progress continues, due to improved funding of research, the cure rate for cancers diagnosed prior to age 20 can approach 85%.

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