Children with cancer often require different medical treatment than adults with cancer because the causes of the disease are often different for children and adults. This is why September has been declared Childhood Cancer Awareness Month — to shine a spotlight on the types of cancer that largely affect children and to help raise funds for research and family support. The National Cancer Institute estimates that in 2016, 10,380 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States among children from birth to 14 years and more than 1,200 children will die from the disease.
The Stanford Medicine Children’s Health Bass Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases is a leading pediatric cancer center dedicated to helping children of all ages who have cancer and blood diseases to manage or overcome their conditions. Since childhood cancers are so rare, most young patients are referred here because of our expertise and experience. We have a pediatric cancer treatment and research program that’s globally renowned for its treatment of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease, leukemia and brain tumors.
The Bass Center is part of the Stanford Cancer Institute, which has earned the National Cancer Institute’s highest cancer center designation as a Comprehensive Cancer Center. They see over 200 patients a year and have access to the expertise of more than 200 faculty and staff dedicated to helping kids with cancer and blood disease. To date, they have performed more than 800 pediatric bone marrow transplants. Learn more about the innovation and research at the Bass Center.
Thank you to our great team of nurses who have organized activities all month to raise awareness of the importance of funding research on cures for childhood cancer.
Already there has been encouraging news this month. The government is funding a Cancer Moonshot program with the goal of making a decade’s worth of progress in cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment in just 5 years. Last week, they presented 10 transformative research recommendations to the National Cancer Advisory Board, including a call to intensify research on the major drivers of childhood cancers.
Discover more about the Bass Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases.
