How These Facts Are Impacting Our Future
As a result of today’s under-funding of children’s cancer research, children with cancer are being treated with therapies that were designed for adult bodies. The result of using too aggressive of drug therapy on a young body is devastating.
- Decades of using these adult treatments on children’s young, growing bodies have repeatedly ended with these young survivors experiencing severe cardiac problems, hearing loss, brain function changes or learning disabilities, suffering kidney or liver failure, having their growth stunted or malformed limbs, and becoming infertile to name just a few side effects.
- There are nearly 400,000 adult survivors of childhood cancer living in the United States today; * that number will grow to half a million by the year 2020.** Additionally, an adult survivor is 15 times more likely to be diagnosed with a secondary cancer in his or her lifetime.** These long-term health issues not only have a negative impact on the individuals and their families, but also have far reaching effects into the health and productivity of our society.
* https://cac2.org/childhood-cancer-fact-library/
** http://www.newsweek.com/2015/07/31/childhood-cancer-survivors-face-lifelong-challenges-356382.html
