Childhood Cancer Fact Sheet
· Childhood Cancer is the leading cause of non-accidental death in children
· More children die each year from pediatric cancer than from asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, congenital abnormalities and AIDS combined.
· Nine children die of cancer every school day.
· The cause of childhood cancer remains unknown. No one knows why the incidence of childhood cancer in the United States has increased at approximately one percent per year
· The incidences of the most common type of childhood cancer—acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) are up 10 percent; the incidences of childhood brain tumors are up more than 30 percent
· By the age of 20, 1 in every 330 children or adolescents is diagnosed with cancer
· More than 75 percent of drugs used to treat adults with cancer originated from studies in children with cancer
· In the last 50 years, more children have died from cancer than U.S. soldiers in all military actions combined
In 1960, the overall survival rate for children with cancer was only 10 percent. Today, more than 70 percent survive. |
