Childhood Cancer Facts
- Childhood Cancer is the #1 disease related killer of children – more than AIDS, asthma, diabetes and cystic fibrosis combined.
- Every school day, 46 children – or two classrooms of students – are diagnosed with cancer in this country.
- More than 40,000 children and adolescents are currently being treated for childhood cancers in the U.S.
- Nearly 50 children in the Northern Nevada area are diagnosed with some form of childhood cancer each year. The average length of treatment is 2 to 5 years.
- Currently, there remains no known preventative guidelines for childhood cancer.
- Since the 1950s, cooperative research has improved the survival rates for childhood cancer from less than 10% to 78% overall.
- While there have been remarkable breakthroughs in cancer treatments and improvement in survival rates, one out of five children continues to die.
- More than 70% of children with cancer are on clinical trials as opposed to 3 to 5% of adults.
- About 80% of children show evidence that the disease already has spread at the time of diagnosis, compared with only about 20% of adults.
- In the U.S., one out of 330 children between birth and age 20 will be diagnosed each year. That is more than 1,000 children every month, more than 240 children every week, more than 34 children every day or nearly two children every hour of every day of every year.
- More than 2,300 children die from cancer each year, 191 children every month, 44 children each week and more than six children every day lose their lives to childhood cancer.
- The average age of an adult diagnosed with cancer is 68; the average age of diagnosis for the childhood cancer is 6. A whole lifetime, career and future family are at stake.