"HANNA'S HEROES"
The Hanna Holliday Fund
"Hanna's Heroes" in partnership with The Hanna Holliday Fund was created to help families that are dealing with
childhood cancers.
Childhood cancer is rare, about 1 in every 600 children develop cancer before the age of 15 - still relatively little is known about it's causes. Childhood cancer is not a single disease - there are many different types. Compared with adult cancers they tend to have different histologies and occur in different sites of the body. Common adult cancers such as lung, breast, colon, and stomach are extremely rare among children. On the other hand some types of cancer are almost exclusively found in children. In the US alone there will be an estimated 9,100 new cases expected to occur this year along with 1,400 tragic, premature deaths. Childhood cancer is the second leading cause of death for children in the US.
(1)This chart represents the proportions of different types of childhood cancers - based on data from The America Cancer Society.
According to the International Classification of Childhood Cancer, childhood cancers include:
• Leukemia (32.6% of all childhood cancers), which may be recognized by bone and joint pain, weakness, bleeding, and fever
• Brain and other nervous system (21.1%), which in early stages may cause headaches, nausea, vomiting,
blurred or double vision, dizziness, and difficulty in walking or handling objects
• Neuroblastoma (6.7%), a cancer of the sympathetic nervous system that usually appears as a swelling in the abdomen
• Wilms tumor (4.9%), a kidney cancer that may be recognized by a swelling or lump in the abdomen
• Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (4.2%) and Hodgkin lymphoma (3.7%), which affect lymph nodes but may spread to bone marrow and other organs, and may cause swelling of lymph nodes in the neck, armpit, or groin; weakness; and fever
• Rhabdomyosarcoma (3.5%), a soft tissue sarcoma that can occur in the head and neck, genitourinary area, trunk, and extremities, and may cause pain and/or a mass or swelling
• Retinoblastoma (2.8%), an eye cancer that usually occurs in children younger than 4 years
• Osteosarcoma (2.7%), a bone cancer that often has no initial pain or symptoms until local swelling begins
• Ewing sarcoma (1.4%), another type of cancer that usually arises in bone
(1)Leukemias are the most common childhood cancers. They account for about 33% of all childhood cancers. Leukemia is a condition where too many underdeveloped white blood cells are found in the blood and bone marrow. There will be 4,200 diagnosed with Leukemia in 2008. There are two main childhood leukemias. Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) and acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Approximately 3,650 children will be diagnosed with ALL while 550 will be diagnosed with AML. Over 90% of AML children have down syndrome. ALL has a 95% survival rate and AML has a 54% survival rate. Leukemia may cause bone and joint pain, weakness, bleeding, fever, weight loss, and other symptoms.(2)
(1) American Cancer Society
(2) Hanna Holliday was diagnosed with AML M07 leukemia on August 27, 2008, after two weeks of testing.
