Sunday, September 5, 2010

Here are some very interesting facts concerning Childhood Cancer. I think it is high time that it gets some attention. IT IS ABSOLUTELY a PLAGUE IN THE US:
DID YOU KNOW?

* In the U.S. almost 3000 children die from cancer each year, more than from asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, congenital anomalies, and pediatric AIDS combined.

* Cancer is the number one disease killer of children between ages of 1-19

*1 in 330 will be diagnosed with cancer by age 20.

*The incidence of childhood cancer has increased EVERY year for the last 25 years!

* In the past 25 years ONLY ONE new cancer drug has been approved for pediatric use. Since children can handle much more chemo than adults, most treatments are little more than mega doses of adult cancer chemotherapy treatments. The result of these high doses of chemo on children is a higher rate of secondary cancers. For reasons not fully known, teenagers experience the highest rate of secondary cancers as a result of the high dose chemotherapy treatments.

*At the time of diagnosis in children, the cancer has already spread in 80% of the cases. That is compared to the 20% in adults

*As a nation, we spend $14 BILLION per year on the space program, but only $35 MILLION on childhood cancer research per year.

* The National Cancer Institutes federal budget is about $5 Billion. Less than 3% of the budget goes towards all pediatric cancers combined. The rest goes toward adult cancers. Breast cancer alone receives 12%. Prostate cancer receives 7%.

*The government recently cut the budget for Childhood Cancer.

*Only 3 percent of the budget from the National Cancer Institute goes towards Pediatric Cancer Research.

* September is Pediatric Cancer Awareness month, which nationally goes largely unrecognized.


Stephen Sallan, chief of staff at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, says adults attract more cancer research than children because they are a far larger and more lucrative market. Patients younger than 20 make up 12,400 of the nearly 1.4 million Americans stricken with cancer each year. Drug companies are generally unwilling to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into such a small market, he says.

I know I am running these facts into the ground; but I am outraged by all of this. I have to admit, I didn't know any of these facts before my son was diagnosed with a childhood cancer. What Stephen Sallon says about the kids not being worth the money (my words) just infruiates me!! And it should you, too. Please get the word out about Childhood Cancer awareness. We made little gold ribbon pins and put them in our church bulletins this morning. It was fantastic to see most people put their pins on; hopefully it started some conversations when they left church. We need the awareness so we can get the funding for our children. You never know when it could be your child, or your grandchild, or your neice or nephew, etc. We need to find a cure!

Thanks for stopping by. Have a good rest of your weekend. God bless you all. We love you.

Kristi and the Koury Klan