September Is Childhood Awareness Month In Rich County

Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, a time to recognize the children and families affected by childhood cancers and to emphasize the importance of supporting research on these devastating conditions. 

This month, and throughout the year, we honor the children currently battling cancer, the families who love them, the clinicians and other caregivers treating them, the survivors of childhood cancer, the children who lost their lives to childhood cancer, and the researchers working to conquer childhood cancer.

Did you know... ?

• Survival rates continue to rise... In the 1970s, only 63 percent of US children with cancer survived. Today, 85 percent do, with survival rates topping 90 percent for some childhood cancers.>>more childhood cancer statistics 
• ... but are lagging in less-developed countries.Eighty percent of cases of childhood cancer are in the developing world, where survival averages 20 percent. Only 20 percent of cases are in the developed world, where more than 80 percent survive. >>more global health statistics 
• There are more adult survivors of childhood cancer than ever before. In the U.S. alone, 350,000 adults are survivors of childhood cancer.
• Childhood cancers are rare, representing less than 1% of all new cancer diagnoses.
• The most common form of childhood cancer is leukemia (blood cell cancers), which represents about one-third of all childhood cancer diagnoses, followed by brain and central nervous system tumors. Other forms are less common.