Day 2 - Statistics

You may have heard the statistic that 80% of Childhood Cancer is cured these days. But remember, that is on the whole. ALL Leukemia is cured 96% of the time, Hodgkin Lymphoma is cured 95% of the time, several other childhood cancers are cured more than 80% of the time. We can't forget though that so many have much lower cure rates. For Stage IV Hepatoblastoma like Silas had, the survival rate is only about 20-30% according to Cincinnati Children's hospital. Less than 10% of children diagnosed with DIPG brain tumors live longer than 18 months from the time they are diagnosed.

This 80% survival rate in pediatric cancer patients is a little skewed as well. This only accounts for children who survive 5 years after their treatment, however, some children relapse after the 5 year mark and die.

Its not good enough. We can't stop just because we've reached an 80% cure rate. That's still 1 out of every 5 children diagnosed with cancer dying. The death rate is too high.