CHILDHOOD CANCER FACTS

 

• Childhood cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children under the age of 19 in the U.S.

• Childhood cancer research is vastly and consistently underfunded.

• One in 285 children in the U.S. will be diagnosed with cancer by the time they are 20 years old.

• Every year, an estimated 250,000+ new cases of cancer affect children under the age of 20 worldwide.

• Two-thirds of childhood cancer patients will have long lasting chronic conditions from treatment.

• One in five children diagnosed with cancer in the U.S. will not survive. (For the ones who do, the battle is never over.)

• Because of the treatments they had as kids, more than 99% of childhood cancer survivors will have a chronic health problem and 96% will have severe or life-threatening conditions.

• Much of what we know about treating adult cancers has been learned from childhood cancer research.

• In 80% of kids with cancer, the cancer has already spread to other areas of the body by the time it is diagnosed. (That’s why so many children with cancer need to begin treatment right away. Many adult cancers can be diagnosed early.)

• Every two minutes a child is diagnosed with cancer.

• The average age of a child diagnosed with cancer is 6.