Childhood Cancer Facts
The Bad News...
- 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.
The Good News...
- 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%.
