home  what we do Childhood cancer
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Childhood cancer |
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 Although specific types of childhood
cancer are uncommon and childhood cancers represent a small percentage of all
cancers, each year more than 160,000 children are diagnosed and cancer is the
second most common cause of death, after accidents, among children in developed
countries. The good news is that most can be cured or a long-term remission achieved
if prompt and essential treatment is both accessible and affordable.
However, 80% of children with cancer are
in resource-constrained countries where access to information, early detection
and effective treatment and care is often poor. More than one in two of these
children diagnosed with cancer will die, contributing significantly to the
estimated 90.000 childhood cancer deaths annually, thus collectively childhood
cancers represent an important global public health problem.
The UICC Capacity Building Against
Childhood Cancer Initiative aims to address the major hurdles to local
sustainability of childhood cancer programmes in low and middle-income countries,
which include:
- Sustainable provision of treatment;
specifically chemotherapy and associated supportive therapies and equipment
- Infrastructure support; provision of
funds to buy, renovate or extend facilities to provide wards and laboratories
as well as equip those facilities
- Professional development support; funding
of staff training and long-term mentorship
- Access to care; funding travel expenses
and family living expenses while attending therapy or provision of mechanisms
such as home care or mobile clinics
See St Jude's cancer survival
rates data.
Read more about the UICC childhood cancer projects: My Child Matters; Symphasis; Schellenberg.
Image: © Gil Corre - sanofi-aventis
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uicc | international union against cancer 
