Boswell: Investing in Childhood Cancer Research

Congressman Leonard Boswell

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and an opportune time to evaluate our nation’s efforts in addressing childhood cancer and survivorship. The United States has some of the best cancer research centers in the world and still childhood cancers are the number-one disease killer and second cause of death overall of our country’s children. With this concern, I have co-sponsored the Childhood Cancer Survivorship Research and Quality of Life Act of 2009 (H.R. 2109) to improve and enhance research on childhood cancers.

For every $6 in research funding spent per patient with AIDS and $1 spent per patient battling breast cancer, just 30 cents is spent per child on cancer research. H.R. 2109 will expand and intensify the Centers for Disease Control’s pediatric cancer control programs for research and the training of health care professionals. The bill also mandates the study of survival rates in underserved communities and how to improve follow-up care for survivors and their families.

The American Cancer Society estimates in 2009 there will be 10,730 new cases of cancer in children between the ages of 0 and 14 and 1,380 cases will be terminal. As a whole, pediatric cancer is relatively uncommon and the five-year survival rate for childhood cancers has increased by 50 percent since 1975; currently, 80 percent of children survive more than five years.

Unfortunately, several childhood cancers do have a very poor prognosis, including brain stem tumors, metastatic sarcomas, relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and relapsed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Childhood cancers are also often detected at a later stage than adult cases. At diagnosis, only 20 percent of adults with cancer show evidence the disease has spread, but in 80 percent of children the cancer has already spread to distant sites. Improved detection is so important, yet difficult to achieve, because the cause of most childhood cancers are unknown and at present, cannot be prevented.

With the passage of the Childhood Cancer Survivorship Research and Quality of Life Act of 2009, we could further reduce the childhood cancer mortality rate and improve quality of life for all childhood cancer survivors.

I welcome your thoughts on this or any other issue. For more information on childhood cancer, please visit http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/childhoodcancers. As always, feel free to contact me in Des Moines at 515-282-1909, or toll-free at 1-888-432-1984. You can also contact me in Washington, D.C. at 202-225-3806.