Essay about Costs of Childhood Cancer Treatment and Research

Cancer is a word which evokes many different images and emotions. Nothing in this world can prepare a person for the utter devastation of finding out someone has been diagnosed with cancer, especially when this person is a child. Over the past twenty five years the amount of research and the survival rate for children suffering with cancer have increased dramatically. Despite these successes, the funding for new research necessary to keep these children alive and healthy is miniscule and too dependent on short term grants. Of the billions of dollars spent each year on cancer treatments and research less than a third is contributed to researching pediatric cancer. Given the media focus on adult cancers, research for pediatric cancer is

2. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has helped drive overall cancer survival rates from less than 20 percent to more than 70 percent, and the survival rate for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common form of pediatric cancer, from 4 percent to 94 percent.

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.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is the number one worldwide organization for children's cancer and other serious childhood diseases. “St. Jude has helped improve the survival rate of childhood cancer from 20 to 80 percent”(Young). With your help the families of the children with illnesses pay absolutely nothing throughout their time and stay at St. Jude, making their child's condition and health their only and number one priority (About St. Jude’s Research Hospital). The amount of money that is donated to this hospital benefits not only the patients there, but convalescent’s all around the globe. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is an organization in which you should donate your money because all of the money goes into paying for the patients’ care and stay, the breakthroughs that they make are shared so doctors everywhere can help more children, and they have improved the survival rate of children’s cancer.

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.

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.

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.

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

Initially, Kids Acting Against Cancer was a small rag tag collection of children performing shows in the basements of their homes. The first production was the musical, “Annie”, which raised $200 that was immediately donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The organization stuck with the musical model for until 2012. In just three years, their showings of Annie and other fundraising efforts raised $85,000. As a non-profit,

Our campaign is designed to create awareness for With Purpose and the lack of research funding for Pediatric Cancer. Therefore, it would be useful

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

In this case, sufficient data should be available prior to bringing children into clinical trials. There are greater challenges involving children in clinical trials than with adults. Children need to be divided into at least three different categories such as infants, children and adolescents. Their response to treatment will differ based on the pathophysiology, severity of the disease, course of the treatment, and response to the treatment. If overlooked, treatments that are safe and effective in adults can be deadly to children. Radiation therapy for example is used in approximately 50 percent of adult patients during the course of their treatment. However, as stated by Krasin (2010), “this same therapy can lead to disruption in normal tissue development in

Having to watch a person suffer is quite difficult, but having to bear witness to the suffering of a child is downright heartbreaking. Thinking from a parent’s perspective it seems unimaginable to think that an innocent child, your child, could be diagnosed with cancer; and although it is rare for a child to develop cancer it is not impossible. Sadly, cancer is actually the leading cause of death by disease past infancy among children in the United States.

Children diagnosed with childhood cancer experience effects that result in decreased quality of life and developmental delays, during and after treatment. In order to understand the impact of the diagnosis of childhood cancer, one must first understand the normal pathophysiology process of the hematopoietic and cardiovascular system.