Get Informed:

Childhood Cancer Facts

Childhood Cancer is a Leading Cause
of Death of Children by Disease:

Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children between under the age of 15 in the United States.

More children still die from cancer than Cystic Fibrosis, Muscular Dystrophy, Asthma, and AIDS combined.

Every year approximately 12,400 children and adolescents under the age of 20 are diagnosed with cancer and about 4,000 of children die from cancer each year. That means about 11 children die from cancer or cancer-related complications each day.

The incidence rate of childhood cancer is about 1 per 6,400 children per year. On the average, 36 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer everyday in the United States.

Between birth and 20 years of age, about 1 in 333 Americans develops cancer.

Childhood cancer occurs regularly, randomly and spares no ethnic group, socioeconomic class, or geographic region.

Childhood cancer treatments have not changed significantly in more than a decade!

Yet, Childhood Cancer Research
is Vastly Underfunded.

Funding for pediatric cancer clinical trials has gone down every year since 2003.

In 2006, the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) federal budget was $4.6 billion. Of that, breast cancer received 12%, prostate cancer received 7%, and all 12 major groups of pediatric cancers combined received less than 3%. And childhood cancer research only gets 2.96% of the money raised by the American Cancer Society.

In dollar terms, NCI’s funding for pediatric clinical trials is $26.4 million while funding for AIDS research is $254 million, and breast cancer is $584 million.

Pediatric cancer research is not only grossly under-funded by the government, it is also largely ignored by private drug companies. Pharmaceutical companies fund over 50 % of adult cancer research, but virtually nothing for kids.

Pharmaceutical companies don’t commit resources to childhood cancer research because the adult cancer drug business is viewed as more profitable and less risky to them.

Accordingly, there is an estimated $30 million a year gap in childhood cancer research funding.

Childhood cancer is the leading cause of death in children by disease and yet, it remains grossly under-funded by the government and private industry. Treatments for childhood cancer have not changed significantly in more than a decade.
This is Not Acceptable!!