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Childhood Cancer Facts

Surprising Facts about Kids’ Cancer

In the US:

  • A child has a 1 in 285 chance of being diagnosed with cancer.
  • A child is diagnosed with cancer every 40 minutes.
  • "Survival Rates" are merely the 5 year survival.
  • The ribbon representing childhood cancer is GOLD.
  • A child dies of cancer every 3 hrs. 20 min.
  • There are more than a dozen different types of childhood cancer, and dozens of sub-types.
  • There is currently no screening or early detection for childhood cancer.
  • Treatments can cause secondary cancers.
  • Every School Day, the equivalent to two classrooms full of children are diagnosed with cancer.
  • The average # of years of life lost by a child who passes from childhood cancer is 72 years.
  • 50 Children die of cancer each week.
  • September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
  • We lose as many children every year to cancer as the number of people who died on 9/11.
  • Less than 3% of research funding goes to kids cancer research.
  • If cures remain another 10 years off, another 20-30,000 children will die of cancer.
  • If you were born in 1970, about 100,000 children have died of cancer in your lifetime.
  • 80% of children’s cancers have already metastasized at the time of diagnosis.
  • Many treatment protocols for children’s cancers are 20-30 years old.
  • Cancer is the leading disease killer in children, (more than all other diseases combined).
  • 86% of children who survive childhood cancer face long term health problems and handicaps from the treatments.