My 8 year old nephew's cancer is back.
I hate cancer. Cancer sucks. Especially when it's a child that is affected. My nephew was first diagnosed with leukemia in February of 2011. He was 5 years old. It seemed like everything was going great and he was due to end chemo this coming April. We had already started planning a party for his last day of chemo.
Now, we start all over. More radiation, a bone marrow transplant and more aggressive chemo.
That's a lot for a boy who just had his 8th birthday.
But, he beat it once. He can do it again. Cancer chose the wrong boy to mess with.
Facts About Childhood Cancer:- Each year around 13,500 children are diagnosed with cancer in the US
- One in every 330 Americans develops cancer before the age of twenty.
- On the average, 36 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer everyday in the United States (around 46 per school day).
- 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.
- The incidence of invasive pediatric cancers is up 29% in the past 20 years.
- The causes of most childhood cancers are unknown. At present, childhood cancer cannot be prevented.
- Childhood cancer occurs regularly, randomly and spares no ethnic group, socioeconomic class, or geographic region. In the United States, the incidence of cancer among adolescents and young adults is increasing at a greater rate than any other age group, except those over 65 years.
Mortality associated with Childhood Cancer
- Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children under the age of 15 in the United States.
- 1 in 5 children diagnosed with cancer will die within 5-years
- 1 in 3 children diagnosed with cancer will not live-out a normal life-span (excess mortality)
- Some pediatric brain tumors, such as brain stem gliomas and pontine gliomas, are terminal upon diagnosis and no new protocols have been developed in 30 years.
- Many pediatric cancers, including neuroblastoma and disseminated medulloblastoma, are terminal upon progression or recurrence.
- The average age of death for a child with cancer is 8, causing a child to lose 69 years of expected life.
- Childhood cancers affect more potential patient-years of life than any other cancer except breast and lung cancer.
- Cancer kills more children than AIDs, asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis and congenital anomalies combined.
Long Term Health Effects of the "Cure"
- 74% of childhood cancer survivors have chronic illnesses, and some 40% of childhood cancer survivors have severe illnesses or die from such illnesses.
- Childhood cancer survivors are at significant risk for secondary cancers later in life.
- Cancer treatments can affect a child’s growth, fertility, and endocrine system. Child survivors may be permanently immunologically suppressed.
- Radiation to a child’s brain can significantly damage cognitive function, or if radiation is given at a very young age, limiting the ability to read, do basic math, tell time or even talk.
- Physical and neurocognitive disabilities resulting from treatment may prevent childhood cancer survivors from fully participating in school, social activities and eventually work, which can cause depression and feelings of isolation.
- Childhood cancer survivors have difficulty getting married and obtaining jobs, health and life insurance.
Funding Disparities
- Despite these facts, childhood cancer research is vastly and consistently underfunded.
- In 20 years the FDA has initially approved only two drugs for any childhood cancer - 1/2 of all chemotherapies used for children’s cancers are over 25 years old
- Research and development for new drugs from pharmaceutical companies comprises 60% of funding for adult cancer drugs and close to zero for childhood cancers. However, the NCI spends 96% of its budget on adult cancers and only 4% of its budget on children’s cancers
*Facts were taken from PS I Adore You....http://psweadoreyou.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2012-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2013-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=19
Those statistics are staggering. I was in tears the first time I read through the list. And then I started to get mad because it seems like nothing is getting done for our kids with cancer.
I mean, the numbers are overwhelming. AND THESE ARE CHILDREN! Holy cow, it's just not fair!
We need more funding for pediatric cancer research in order to end this terrible disease so children like LJ no longer have to suffer.
Please help in the fight to end childhood cancer. A great organization to get involved with is CureSearch. Visit http://www.curesearch.org for more information.
