GCU TODAY • 1 3
•
Childhood cancer is the
leading cause of death by
disease among children
ages 14 and younger in the
United States.
•
Leukemia is the most
common form of childhood
cancer.
•
Every day, 36 children are
diagnosedwith cancer. That’s
about 13,500 each year.
•
The average age of
diagnosis is 6.
•
More than 40,000 children
undergo cancer treatments
each year.
•
In 80 percent of children,
cancer already has spread
to other areas of the body by
the time it is diagnosed.
•
Of those diagnosed, one in
five does not survive.
•
The average age of death for
a child with cancer is 8.
•
Mortality rates have
declined by 68 percent over
the past 40 years, largely
because of improvements in
treatment and high rates of
participation in clinical trials.
•
Three out of five children
who do survive will suffer
devastating late effects,
such as secondary cancers,
muscular difficulties and
infertility.
•
The causes of most
childhood cancers are
unknown and, for the
most part, they cannot be
prevented.
GCU Foundation Run to
Fight Children’s Cancer
When:
Saturday, March 8 (5K
at 7:30 a.m., 10K at 7:50, Cancer
Survivors’ Walk at 8:45)
Where:
GCU campus, 3300W.
Camelback Road, Phoenix
Why:
To raise awareness of
pediatric cancer and funding for
the Children’s Cancer Network
and Phoenix Children’s Hospital,
which support families and
children affected by the disease.
Run proceeds also will benefit
research at PCH’s Center for
Cancer and Blood Disorders,
where young cancer patients will be the first to benefit from
new developments in molecular medicine. Nearly $200,000 has
been raised by the three previous GCU cancer runs in Phoenix.
Also:
A variety of family entertainment, including arts and
crafts, music and a jump castle. Free parking in the GCU parking
garage and other campus lots. Free shuttle from a lot at 27th
Avenue and Colter Street.
Registration:
member in GCU’s College of Nursing and Health Care Professions.
“In so many of the kids who go through this, including Jeff, the level of
toxicity in the drugs is severe and the late effects can be profound. If the
institute’s research can impact that toxicity, these kids will be so much
better off 10, 15, 20 years down the road,” Steve Luttrell said. “At the same
time, the level of financial, educational and psychosocial services that
CCN provides to our families will not change with this contribution.”
Most young AML patients get the same cancer treatment, Arceci said.
“A majority of them will go into remission. A bunch won’t. And we
don’t know which ones will and which ones won’t,” he said. “All of them
get the same toxicity, which is profound. They may spend a month in the
hospital, and a large number go to the intensive care unit. For every 100
children, one to three will die just from our treatment.”
Jazmine “Jazzy” Ramos, 17, a junior at Mountain Ridge High School in
Glendale, got three commonly prescribed drugs during her chemotherapy
for osteosarcoma, an aggressive bone cancer, in her left shinbone.
Diagnosed in the sixth grade, Ramos had surgery and underwent nearly 10
months of treatment, losing her hair, two semesters of school and, doctors
say, the ability to conceive.
Ramos’ cancer relapsed two years ago, when tumors were found in her
right lung. Doctors are monitoring nodules that have developed there.
After years of physical therapy, Ramos walks normally but wears a brace
from her left foot to her knee, and likely has more surgeries to endure.
But the Phoenix teen has an unwavering faith in God and, through
speaking engagements and fundraisers for the Purple Society and
HopeKids, has become a source of encouragement to children.
“People ask me, ‘What if your cancer comes back or you get another
cancer?’” Ramos said. “If God’s taken me this far, He’s going to stand by
me the rest of the way.”
Her mother, Bernadette Kesler, imagines what molecular medicine
could mean for the next generation of cancer victims.
“If cancer could be detected before it’s aggressive or even before stage
one, if children no longer had to endure bone marrow transplants and
horrible chemotherapy, wow, what an amazing thing,” she said.
SOURCES: CHILDREN’S CANCER NETWORK (
),
CURESEARCH FOR CHILDREN’S CANCER (
), NATIONAL CANCER
INSTITUTE (
), AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY
), THE
TRUTH 365
), KIDS V CANCER
Watch a video on the support available to children with cancer
and their families at
.
Bernadette Kesler and her daughter, Jazmine “Jazzy” Ramos, who had
nine months of chemotherapy for an aggressive bone cancer in 2009, hope
molecular medicine will find ways to better treat, diagnose and, someday,
cure children’s cancer.
photo by
janie magruder
image of cancer cell
©
istock
.
com
/
eraxion
✱
Facts About
Childhood Cancer
