September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

Having a loved one diagnosed with cancer can turn a family’s life upside down, especially if that loved one is a child. A child’s days are supposed to be spent playing and learning about life’s wonders, not sitting in a hospital awaiting painful chemotherapy treatments.

To help raise awareness, September is recognized as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month; we thought we would mark the occasion by highlighting data on childhood cancer in California.

More than 8,500 children in California were diagnosed with cancer from 2002-2006, the most recent period for which data are available.  Moreover, the rate of childhood cancer diagnoses increased 49% from the 1997-2001 period to the 2000-2004 period; it held steady from 2000-04 through 2002-06.

Among California children diagnosed with cancer from 1996 through 2006, an estimated 76% survived for at least five years after their diagnosis. Survival rates vary by type of cancer. The most common form of childhood cancer, by far, is Leukemia.

Caucasian/White children have the highest rate and number of cancer diagnoses of all racial/ethnic groups, but also the highest survival rate.

Share these data with your colleagues, friends, and family members to help raise awareness about childhood cancer.

Posted by kidsdata.org

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