Approximately 13,000 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer every year in the United States alone.
The most common childhood cancers are leukemia, lymphoma and brain cancer. On average 80 percent of children with cancer will survive, but as many as two-thirds will develop at least one long-term health problem or late effect due to cancer and/or treatment – often years or even decades after treatment has ended. Cancer survivors may face significant challenges throughout their lifetime. Some affect their ability to hold jobs, successfully integrate into society or even to sustain healthy relationships.
All kinds of cancer, including childhood cancer, have a common disease process: cells grow out of control, develop abnormal sizes and shapes, ignore their typical boundaries inside the body, can destroy neighboring cells and ultimately spread (or metastasize) to other organs and tissues. As cancer cells grow, they demand more and more of the body's nutrition. Cancer affects a child's strength, destroys organs and bones and weakens the body's defenses against other illnesses.
UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital and the Center for Survivors of Childhood Cancer can help.
We are dedicated to enhancing the lifelong well being and quality of life of childhood and young adult cancer survivors through superior clinical care, advocacy, education and survivorship research.
The Center's multidisciplinary team includes specialists from pediatric oncology, psychology, oncology nursing, social work, child life, physical therapy, nutrition and sports medicine. Programs include a Long-Term Follow-Up Clinic, School Liaison Program, Physical Preparedness Program and a Survivor Advocacy Program.