There is no known cause for childhood cancers and are considered rare, although in the US alone 1 in 300 kids are diagnosed with cancer before age 20, over 15,000/year and over a quarter million kids worldwide.
Childhood cancers are the #1 disease killer of children in the US, that’s more than cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, asthma and AIDS combined.
There are 12 different types of childhood cancer and over 100 different sub-types. Both ALL and AML leukemia have several mutation combinations among the sub-types that each act like a different cancer. with different treatment regimes.
Pediatric AML has an overall average survival rate of 65%. Depending on the sub-type and mutations involved certain cancers have a much lower survival rates.
The treatment plan for AML and some cancers hasn’t changed since the 1960’s.
Only 4% of the national government budget goes to pediatric cancer research while 96% for adult cancers yet kids account for 20% of the population.
Pediatric AML occurs in 20% of the children diagnosed with leukemia and only 6% overall of children diagnosed with cancer
Treatment related death for AML occurs in 10% of pediatric patients.
98% of survivors suffer from a chronic health condition by the age of 45, including pulmonary, hearing, cardiac and other problems related to their cancer or the cancer treatment.
The incidence of childhood cancer has increased by 29% over the last 20 years.
Survival rate for cancers is statistically calculated based on the number of children that live to the 3 or 5 year mark. This does not include any children that die from the late effects of treatment or secondary cancers after the 5 years.
Every 3 minutes another child is diagnosed with cancer. 1 in 5 children will die within five years of treatment.
For every child that dies an average of 70 life years is lost.