Childhood Cancer Facts

A diagnosis of cancer for a child affects the entire family and has long term affects for the child. Understanding the facts, issues, and psychosocial needs of children and their families battling childhood cancer is critical and at the core of our mission. Here are the TOP 10 STATS that illustrate how significant a segment of the population this group is: 

  1. Childhood cancer is the #1 killer of children by disease, more than asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, congenital anomalies, and pediatric AIDS combined (National Cancer Institute; Centers for Disease Control & Prevention).
  2. One out of every 330 children under the age of 20 will develop cancer (Cancernet; CureSearch).
  3. Each year, over 16,000 children are diagnosed with cancer in the U.S. (Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results/National Cancer Institute).
  4. Each school day, 46 children are diagnosed with cancer (CureSearch).
  5. Approximately 1,400 children with cancer die each year, that is almost four children a day (CureSearch).
  6. When a child is diagnosed with cancer, everyone in the family is affected (Children’s Cancer Foundation).
  7. As a result of treatment, 59% of children have a diagnosable mental health issue (DeMaso & Shaw, 2010).
  8. There are 328,000 childhood cancer survivors in the United States (Mariotto et al., 2009).
  9. One in 570 young adults in the United States is a childhood cancer survivor (Oeffinger & Hudson, 2010).
  10. Forty three percent of young adult survivors of childhood cancer have adverse health outcomes and 30% of young adult survivors of childhood cancer have adverse mental health outcomes (Hudson et al., 2003).

(Statistics collected and shared by the Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation.)