CHILDHOOD CANCER FACTS

CHILDHOOD CANCER FACTS

► Presently there are 10,000 children living with cancer in Canada today, that is 10,000 too many!

► Each year, about 1500 new cases of childhood cancer are diagnosed in Canada.

► Cancer is the leading disease related cause of death among kids in Canada after the first year of life. More deaths than asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis and AIDS combined.

► In contrast to many of the cancers affecting adults, the causes of cancer in childhood are largely unknown.

► Leukemias, tumours of the brain and nervous system, the lymphatic system, kidneys, bones and muscles are the most common childhood cancers.

► Childhood cancers have close to a 75% cure rate, with leukemia leading the success charge with close to 90% overall cure rate.

► One in four children who are diagnosed with cancer will die of the disease.

► With a mortality rate of close to 25%, Canada loses tens of thousands of years of potential life each year to childhood cancer. In terms of potential life saved, childhood cancer ranks second only to breast cancer.

► Approximately 2/3 of survivors of childhood cancer face late effects of their disease and treatment, including neurocognitive impairments, sterility and secondary cancers.

► 1 in 330 individuals under the age of 20 will be diagnosed with a malignant disease.

► Studies show that treatment related out-of-pocket costs add up to approximately 1/3 of after tax income annually which relates to hundreds of millions of dollars on already emotionally and financially burdened families.

► More than 82 percent of children diagnosed with cancer become long-term survivors and the majority of them are considered cured.

► Long-term effects of surviving the treatments for childhood cancer can affect these children's futures.

► In the early 1950s, less than 10 percent of childhood cancer patients could be cured.

► Children are most affected by acute leukemia, tumours of the brain and nervous system, the lymphatic system, kidneys, bones and muscles.

► Lymphomas and cancers of the central nervous system are the second most diagnosed children's cancer, at 17% of total cancers diagnosed.

► Sarcomas, or cancers of the muscles, bones, nerves, fat, blood or connective tissue are next at 12%, with boys 25-30% more likely to contract this form of cancer.

► Neuroblastoma, which represents 95% of tumours in the sympathetic nervous system, represents 5% of all childhood cancers.

► Because of significant advances in therapy, 82% of these children will survive 5 years or more, an increase of almost 46% since the early 1960s.

► Cancer begins with the transformation of a single cell. We have yet to understand why-if we only knew!