Kids Deserve Better

By The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society  Did you know that blood cancer is the most common cancer diagnosis for children, accounting for 40% of pediatric cancer cases? In fact, nearly 55,000 children and adolescents in the United  States currently have blood cancer or are in remission from blood cancer.   It wasn’t long ago that a blood cancer diagnosis meant young patients would most likely lose  their lives, but today, advances in medicine have given most children a chance to grow into  adulthood. Still, treatment options for pediatric cancer patients aren’t adequate. Only 5 percent of cancer drugs are approved for first-time use in children, so when a child receives a cancer  diagnosis, their options are very limited. In most cases, their families have no other option than to accept side effects from cancer treatments that were primarily developed for adults.   The downside: the treatments that help survivors reach remission have many different side  effects that ripple out and cause other health issues. The result? A shocking 80% of childhood cancer survivors have chronic, often debilitating health issues resulting from cancer treatment.   Kids deserve better, safer, less toxic treatments.  That’s the reason The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) launched The Dare...