CHILDHOOD CANCER & NEUROBLASTOMA FACTS
Leukemia - Leukemias are the most common childhood cancers. They account for about 33% of all childhood cancers. Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) and acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) are the most common types of leukemia in children.
Brain and nervous system cancers - Brain and other nervous system cancers are the second most common cancers in children, making up about 21% of childhood cancers.
Neuroblastoma - Neuroblastoma is a form of cancer that starts in certain types of nerve cells found in a developing embryo or fetus. This type of cancer occurs in infants and young children. It is most often found during the first year of life. It is rarely found in children older than 10. This tumor can start anywhere but usually occurs in the belly (abdomen) and is noticed as swelling. It can also cause bone pain and fever. It accounts for about 7% of childhood cancers.
Wilms tumor - Wilms tumor is a cancer that starts in one, or rarely, both kidneys. It is most often found in children about 3 years old, and is uncommon in children older than age 6.
Lymphomas - Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and Hodgkin lymphoma (sometimes called Hodgkin disease, Hodgkin's disease, or Hodgkin's lymphoma), are cancers that start in lymph tissues, such as the tonsils, lymph nodes, and thymus.
Rhabdomyosarcoma - Rhabdomyosarcoma is the most common soft tissue sarcoma in children.
Retinoblastoma - Retinoblastoma is a cancer of the eye. It is rare, accounting for just under 3% of childhood cancers
Bone cancers - Primary bone cancers (cancers that start in the bones) occur most often in children and adolescents.
Osteosarcoma is uncommon, accounting for almost 3% of all new childhood cancer cases in the United States. It often causes no pain or symptoms until swelling starts, but sometimes there is bone pain that keeps getting worse. .
Ewing sarcoma is a less common primary bone cancer which can cause bone pain. It is mostly found in adolescents. It accounts for a little more than 1% of childhood cancers.
Neuroblastoma:
• Approximately 500 to 1,000 children are diagnosed with neuroblastoma in the United States each year.
• Doctors have known about neuroblastoma for approximately 35 years.
• Neuroblastoma is primarily diagnosed in children ages 14 and under, with most cases in children younger than 5 years.
• The cause of neuroblastoma is unknown, and it is more likely to occur in males than females.
• Neuroblastoma is difficult to diagnose in small children, and its progression is often rapid and painful.
• Neuroblastoma accounts for 8 percent of childhood cancer cases, but is responsible for 15 percent of all childhood cancer deaths.
• One in 330 children will develop cancer by age 20.
• Each school day, 46 children are diagnosed with cancer.
• Each child in the U.S. diagnosed with cancer receives approximately one-sixth of the federal research support allocated to each patient afflicted with AIDS. Yet in 2004, 48 new cases of pediatric AIDS were diagnosed vs. more than 12,000 pediatric cancer cases.
• Although the 5 year survival rate is steadily increasing, one quarter of children will die 5 years from the time of diagnosis
• Cancer accounts for the greatest number of disease deaths of children in the United States and kills more children per year than cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, asthma and AIDS combined
Sources:
American Cancer Society, Band of Parents, Texas Oncology Group
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/CRI_2_6x_Children_and_Cancer.asp http://www.bandofparents.org/neuroblastoma.html
http://www.texasoncology.com/about.aspxid=2750&terms=neuroblastoma
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Grandpa John's Prayer for His Little Buddies
I hear no voice, I feel no touch,
I see no glory bright;
But yet I know that God is near,
In darkness as in light.
God watches ever by my side,
And hears my whispered prayer:
A God of love for a little child
Both night and day does care --- Anonymous
- Our Angels -
Austin Melgar, Courtney Saunders, Cooper Riley Proscia, Emily Adamson, Victoria Houston, John Eric Bartels, Kathy Ann Wilkinson, Alara Curran, Spencer Dolling, Marissa Monroe, Olivia Weber, Alexa Aigner, Joe Daily, Ryan Willians, Janie Kashino, Dustin Cobb, Alyssa Chappell, Addison Whipple, Amber Mastey, Katie Krize, Gustavo-Alexis, Kelvin Harper, Maggie Achuff, Kristin Hope, Kahlilla Blyss, Arden Quinn Bucher, Douglas Swift, Max Mikulak, Eliza S, Brandon Loose, Kody Edwards, Brody Hurt, Jay Jay LeBoeuf, Kyah Milne, Nicholas Pagano, Trooper Dante Tareboreli, Carter Wax, Zachary Finestone, Cora McClenahan, Little Roy Gutierrez, Chloe Smith, *Cody Johnson*, Emilio Gravez, Jacob Stovall, Noah Tyler Bell, Shu Qinpet (pet name Xinxin), Jenna Mussolini and Owen Lea, Carson Clark, Juan Santiago Wall, Erik Ludwinski, Layla Grace Marsh, Samuel Thomas Hutchison, Sydney Marie Dudley, Sophie Atay (And Our Big Warrior hero 1st Lt Joseph Helton, USAF - 8 Sept 2009),
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