Awareness of much needed funding for Pediatric Cancer is virtually absent from the public eye due to lack of media attention. For example, the funding for pediatric AIDS is four times greater than the funding for pediatric cancer, yet in comparison, twice as many children die of cancer in one month as do die of AIDS in one year. Cancer in childhood occurs regularly, randomly and spares no ethnic group, socioeconomic class, or geographic region. A number of the advances in adult cancer treatment are due to breakthroughs in childhood cancer research. These facts demonstrate the dire need for increased awareness and funding toward childhood cancer research now.
Cooperative research is essential to advancing treatments and cures for childhood cancer.
Research protocols that compare the best-known standard treatment to newly developed treatments have resulted in literally all of the important improvements in treating childhood cancer More than 235 childhood cancer institutions and 3,000 individual investigators throughout North America participate in the Children's Oncology Group, to share and extend the knowledge and expertise that leads to improved treatments and cures for childhood cancer. The care of more than 40,000 young cancer patients is currently managed according to Children's Oncology Group protocols, providing these patients with the most current and technologically advanced treatment available. The Children's Oncology Group is devoted to the study and development of new treatments and cures for the cancers of infants, children, adolescents and young adults. To make a difference, cooperative research is crucial. We intend to support the efforts of the Children's Oncology Group and that of the National Childhood Cancer Foundation, as well as other organizations fighting for a better tomorrow for young victims of cancer.