Too many children and adolescents still die of cancer worldwide. Based on current limited statistics – one child dies of cancer every three minutes. Effective treatments for certain types of cancer do not yet exist in many LMICs and even in some developed countries.
“While cancer in children is but a fraction of the global cancer burden, for children and their families, it is the difference between life and death.“
Moreover, while significant progress in drug and treatment development has occurred for key adult cancers, development of childhood cancer drugs and treatment is distinctly lagging behind. The latest drug developed for childhood cancer in the United States was 30 years ago. Children/adolescents with cancer continue to suffer through severe and toxic treatments which cause life long health issues and challenges. In the USA, while the FDA has approved 88 new drugs to treat adult cancers since January 2000, only 3 have been approved for use in the pediatric age group. This rather thin record of drug development for pediatric cancers underscores a huge inequity in attention and focus.