Congressman Mccaul's Childhood Cancer

When it comes to cancer, so much of the world’s knowledge is based on statistics. For example, each day forty-six children, or more than two full classrooms of kids, are diagnosed with cancer and one out of every three hundred thirty people will develop cancer before the age of twenty. The simplest and most important of these statistics is this, “Cancer is the number one cause of death by disease in children.” Pediatric cancer takes the lives of more people than the number of children who die from asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis and pediatric AIDS combined! About one thousand three hundred and eighty children are expected to die from cancer this year alone. Although the cure rate of children with cancer is steadily increasing for most childhood cancers over the past five years, the number of children who will die is overwhelming and unacceptable.

Specific Purpose: To convince the audience that childhood cancer is more common than believed, and that action should be taken to increase awareness and funding for research.

According to the American Cancer Society, there are sixteen major types of childhood cancers and over 100 subtypes. Leukemia and Lymphoma cancer are the most common cancers that children get at a young age. Everyday forty-six kids are diagnose with childhood cancer and seven children die every day. Childhood cancer kills more kids than Cystic Fibrosis, AIDS, and asthma combined! The worst part about childhood cancer is that the treatment side affects can last a lifetime for these kids. People do not understand that childhood cancer only gets a small percentage of the budget for all cancers. National Cancer Institute budget is around $4.9 billion and only 4% of that sum goes towards childhood cancer.

The main focus of this article is Richard Nares, a grieving father, who has become a hero in the eyes of many children fighting cancer. Nares has had a huge impact on two-year-old Sisi Johnson who has neuroblastoma. Sisi’s mother does not have a car and struggles to transport her daughter to and from chemotherapy as much as six times a week. Nares, who lost his son, Emilio, to cancer in 2000, has started a program called “Ride With Emilio”. This program provides transportation for low-income families with children battling cancer. The program has hundreds of patients who receive free rides to and from their cancer treatments. Nares met

“Lets not call cancer patients as patients, they are cancer fighters. They are brave hearts” - Vikrmn, Gura. Nowadays, you hear more and more people getting cancer(13). It is a stress that many people worry about. You worry if one of your parents will get it. You pray your children don't’ get it. It’s a constant worry. You watch television and you can get this horrible monster from microwaving your food, drinking bottled water, carrying your phone in your pocket, using deodorant, coloring your hair and much more. Finding a cure for cancer would be a prayer answered for many.

With this is a copy of my justification report on the subject of funding and support of research in pediatric cancer and assisting poor parents of children suffering from cancer. This statement is a review of my findings from the most recent year of working in X Cancer Specialty Center, and a separate research that other researchers have conducted outside the center. This paper will be useful in justifying the funding of extensive research in pediatric cancer, and the necessity to assist parents of the cancer patients to meet medical costs. I have completed this report at no cost to the organization, and I carried out and completed this research during off hours.

Every 3 minutes a child under the age of 15 is diagnosed with cancer worldwide. (150,000 p.a.) 1

Children all around the world have cancer.Most of them survive because of treatment.Today more people are trying to find ways to cure cancer and every day we are getting better at finding the cure.

Imagine instead of learning how to ride a bike and tie your shoelaces, you were learning how to cope with living at a hospital, painful routine testing, and the uncertainty of tomorrow. This is what childhood looks like for thousands of kids worldwide who are battling cancer and other diseases. Without organizations such as ALSAC (American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities) and St. Jude Children’s Research hospital, many of these children would never get the chance to live. What is so unique about St. Jude is that, according to their annual report (2015), approximately 75% of their funding comes from public contributions. Without the support of its donors, St. Jude would not be where it is today, leading the fight against childhood cancer.

St. Jude is the only pediatric cancer research center that denies no child. It is a place where families do not have to pay for treatments and services that are not covered by insurance. It helped raise the overall survival rate of pediatric cancer from 20% to more than 70% (GuideStar, n.d.). Some of their goals are to continue to increase the cure rates for pediatric cancer in the United States; to reduce acute and long-term morbidity that are associated with pediatric cancer treatment; to lead the way in the prevention and control of pediatric cancer; and to advance research and treatment of pulmonary infectious diseases and non-malignant hematological diseases (GuideStar, n.d.). St. Jude is also the first National Cancer Institute-designated

Out of 100,000 children 32.1 cancer diagnoses occur in the age group 0-14, 138.6 occur in the 15-39 age group, and 2,053.8 occur in 40 and older (cancer.gov). Pediatric cancer, being so rare, makes research and development hard to fund because there are not many eligible participants for each specific trial. This creates a “Catch 22” by having a good societal support system, yet not having enough “return-on-investment” (Milne). Pediatric cancer is the leading cause of death in children after accidents, however the amount of deaths has lower drastically in recent years. The mortality rate as a whole has decreased by fifty percent in the last thirty years, however for patients with cancers other than lymphoma or leukemia the mortality rate has not declined since 1996 (Analysis of the National Cancer Institute’s Investment). Lymphoma and leukemia are the most common cancers that children are diagnosed with, but there are many more that can occur that need new research in order to discover ways to decrease the current mortality rate. In 1960 it was discovered that leukemia could be treated by “combination chemotherapy and dose intensity” this brought the curability up from 10% before this discovery to 80% by the 1990s (Norris and Adamson). Although this treatment has been successful for leukemia patients, the most common of childhood cancers, it is not as successful with other types of cancer. There are currently clinical trials that take place to begin trying to find treatments or cure for pediatric cancer, however because of lack of funding many of the trials do not continue or never really take off. Due to the lack of funding and efforts put forth into research for pediatric cancer more the 2,500 children die in America every year (thetruth365.org). Children diagnosed with cancer deserve more work to be put into finding a cure so they can go on to live long, happy

As established in the National Cancer Institute, “Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide for children and adolescents in America, accounting for more than 91,250 children that lose their lives to this disease” (National Cancer Institute). Cancer is not considered a terminal illness, but more of a chronic illness because of the intense treatment that the individual has to endure. As a result of this treatment the chances of survival for children suffering from pediatric cancer has increased around 80 percent. The increment in the survival rate has made it possible for many parents to not have to go through the acceptance that they are about to lose their child to a terminal illness, but have coping strategies that will make them adapt to the fear of the reoccurrence of that illness. This illness has a great impact on the patient as well as the family because not only do they have to adapt to this illness physically, but also mentally. Research has shown that there are both short term and long term effects that come into effect when the child is both in treatment and also years after the treatment. The type of cancers that these adolescents have to endure range from leukemia, brain tumors and other cancerous tumors that have appeared in recent medical studies. These tumors can either be benignant, an acute case that is non-cancerous or malignant, a cancerous case that will need intense treatment over an extended period of time.While many would say there is more of a

When a parent takes their child to the doctor the last thing they want to hear is that their child has cancer. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for a child to be diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, also known as ALL. Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia is one of the most common forms of childhood cancer, and “makes up approximately 25% of cancer diagnoses among children under 15 years old” (3). Children under five years of age are at the most risk of developing ALL. Since it is an acute form of cancer once the onset has begun the disease quickly begins to worsen, therefore patients must seek treatment as soon as possible. “ALL is different than other diseases in that it is not just a single disease but also rather a group of related diseases with different subtypes”(1). This uniqueness causes the treatment of ALL to depend on the subtypes the patient has, therefore each

(Connective: Transition-Now that you’ve heard a little background information on childhood cancer, I’m going to share with you what St Jude does and how they are helping battle these

Cancer, one of the most feared words in our vocabulary of this time, especially in childhood (Druker 1). Most people when thinking of “childhood cancer” envision very young children, although a “Nation Institute of Health Policy concerning inclusion of children in clinical research defines children as being younger than twenty-one years of age while the Food and Drug Administration considers children to be fifteen years and younger” (Ries 158). That being said, most cancers incidence peak among children occurs during the first year of life (Gurney 149). Some of the most well-known nationwide childhood cancers are leukemia, brain cancer, and other central nervous system cancers (oeconline 1). In conjunction, “the side effects of treatment,