Some of the advances in adult cancer care in which Dana-Farber researchers have played a leading role. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute entered the field of adult oncology at a time when the Institute itself was reaching the age of adulthood. His vision was the impetus for a massive expansion of the Institute's facilities and staff. In urging the expansion of the Institute, Farber had more than scientific opportunity in mind. His motivation was a humane and compassionate desire to bring the benefits of modern cancer care to as many patients as possible.
Cancer is far more common in adults than in children.
Ninety-nine percent of all cancer cases, in fact, occur in adults. This year in the United States, there will be 9,000 new cases of cancer in children. The number of new cancer cases in adults will be 1.4 million, not including more than 900,000 new diagnoses of basal and squamous cell skin cancer. Moreover, adult cancer is often more difficult to treat than childhood cancer - it is, in many ways, a different disease from childhood cancer. Adult cancers tend to form in the epithelial tissue that lines such organs as the lung, breast and bowel.