Childhood Cancer Statistics

Important Facts

Each year, the parents of more than 15,000 children age 0-19 in the U.S. will hear the words "your child has cancer." Across all ages, ethnic groups, and socio-economics, this disease remains the number one cause of death by disease in children. In the last 40 years, the overall survival rate for childhood cancer has increased from 10% to over 85% today, but for many more rare childhood cancers, the survival rate remains much lower. Furthermore, the number of diagnosed cases annually has not declined in nearly 20 years. There are approximately 483,000 adult survivors of children's cancer in the United States.