Cancer- The New Childhood Disease?

There is a deadly disease that will affect approximately 10,000 children under the age of 15 this year. It will kill approximately 1,350 children under the age of 15 this year. Rates of this disease in children have been on the rise in the past few decades. This death rate is down from 2500 in 1998. Doctors say the cause is unknown. According to the CDC, this is the second leading cause of death in children ages 5-14 after accidents and unintentional injuries.

Getting concerned? What is this disease?

It’s cancer.

How do childhood cancer deaths compare to other causes of death for children?

In 2011, 1,545 children died from abuse and neglect, just a little higher than the American Cancer Society’s projections for this year. (See page 54 of this document for exact reference.)

In 2010, there were 134 accidental gun deaths of children (0-19).

Remember the post on measles? Before the MMR vaccine, 500 individuals died every year from measles complications.

In 2010, there were 1,790 firearm homicides of children ages 0-19. (A total of 2,808 total homicides, just a little over the 1998 cancer death rate for children.)

In 2010, there were 749 firearm suicides of children ages 0-19. (A total of 1,933 suicides.)

How about children being left in hot cars? That’s a popular topic right now. In 2013 there were 44 children who died from being left in a hot car. Since 1998, there have been a total of 629 vehicular heat stroke deaths among children.

Also take note that the National Cancer Institute has different projections than the American Cancer Society’s more conservative numbers, which include children ages 1-19. The National Cancer Institute projects that in 2014 15,780 children will develop cancer and 1,960 will die. Also take note that survival rates listed for cancer are only for five years after treatment.

So cancer is a significant cause of mortality in children. But guess what kinds of cancers are most common in children?

Leukemia (cancer that starts in blood forming tissue such as bone marrow and spreads through the blood stream), brain and central nervous system tumors, lymphoma (cancer of the immune system), rhabdomyosarcoma (cancer of the soft tissue in the muscle), neuroblastoma (cancer in the nerve cells, which mostly affects infants and children), Wilms tumor (cancer that starts with malignant tumors in the kidneys and then spreads to the lungs, liver or lymph nodes and usually affects children under 5 years old), bone cancer and gonadal and germ cell cancers are the most common types of cancer seen in children ages 0-19.

What could be causing these cancers? While we don’t have any definitive answers at the moment, consider the following:

So it may be wise to ask yourself if you think that we can really inject our children and ourselves with animal viruses and carcinogens and expect only good health to result.

 

 

 

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