It’s Childhood Cancer Awareness Week and here are 10 things you need to know about childhood cancer:

1. In 2016, an estimated 10,380 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed.
2. Of those 10,380, 1,250 deaths will occur among those children between birth and 14 years old.
3. Mortality rates for childhood cancer (those aged birth to 14 years) have declined by 66% over the past four decades. The number has gone from 6.5 (per 100,000) in 1969 to 2.2 in 2012.
4. Childhood cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children under the age of 15 in the U.S.
5. One in 285 children in the U.S. will be diagnosed with cancer by the time they are 20 years old.
6. More than 40,000 children undergo treatment for cancer each year.
7. 60% of children who survive cancer suffer late-effects, such as infertility, heart failure and secondary cancers.
8. Most common types of cancers that develop in children are: Leukemia, brain and other central nervous center tumors, Neuroblastoma, Wilms Tumor, Lymphoma (including Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin), Rhabdomyosarcoma, Retinoblastoma, and Bone cancer (including osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma)
9. Leukemias account for about 30% of all cancers in children.
10. Wilms Tumor is most often found in children about 3 to 4 years old, and is uncommon in children older than age 6.

To help raise support for childhood cancer please share a picture of your favorite childhood character on our Facebook (GradyNewsource) or our Twitter (@GradyNewsource).

By: Kendall Meissner