What Every Person Should Know About Pediatric Oncology

Julia Glade Bender, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics
Division of Pediatric Oncology
Director, PCF Clinical Research Program
Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons

• Nearly 30% of the US population is less than 20 yrs.
• As a whole, pediatric cancer is relatively uncommon, affecting approximately 1-2 in every 10,000 children each year in the United States. That means there are a few cases in almost every school district.
• The risk of any single individual developing cancer by age 20 is approximately one in 330.
• In the United States, approximately 10,500 children under age 15 and 3,700 adolescents ages 15-19 are newly diagnosed with cancer each year.  That is roughly the equivalent of two average size classrooms (35-46 kids) diagnosed each school day.
• For children between 1-19 yrs, cancer is the fourth leading cause of death overall, and the leading cause of disease related death. It remains responsible for more deaths from ages 1-19 than asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis and AIDS combined.
• Another rough estimate would be that 150,000 potential life years are lost annually to childhood cancer.
• Leukemia, tumors of the brain and nervous system, the lymphatic system, kidneys, bones and muscles are the most common childhood cancers.
• Over the period from 1975-1995 the incidence of pediatric cancer increased by approximately 12% but mostly due to improved detection.  The rate of most childhood cancers has been stable although the incidence of melanoma in children is increasing by 1.5-3% per year.
• Mortality from pediatric cancer has been steadily decreasing (due to improved supportive care and clinical trials). In December 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a 20 percent decline in the pediatric cancer death rate between 1990 and 2004.
• The overall survival from pediatric cancer is estimated to be 75%-80%, and the majority of these are considered “cured” (In the early 1950s less than 10 percent, and before the 1970s less than 50% of children with cancer could be cured).
• In 2008, 10,730 children under the age of 15 are anticipated to be newly diagnosed with cancer. It is expected that 80% of these children will survive 5 years or more.  Nonetheless about 1,490 children will die from cancer this year.
• We are continuing to see late deaths of children presumed “cured” due to late relapses, toxicity and secondary malignancy.
• Combined, the cancers of children, adolescents and young adults to age 20 are the sixth most common cancer in the U.S.
• In is estimated that about 1 in every 450 adults is a childhood cancer survivor.
• For every six research dollars per patient with AIDS and every one research dollar per patient with breast cancer, a child with cancer receives 30 cents.

References:

CureSearch Website:
CureSearch represents the combined efforts of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) and the National Childhood Cancer Foundation (NCCF)
www.curesearch.org/aboutcc

The National Cancer Institute: http://seer.cancer.gov/publications/childhood