Cancer knows no Boundaries Today, our children’s only chance of survival is to undergo one of the most intense cancer treatments. The standard treatment for neuroblastoma offers no guarantees and virtually all children who do survive have significant side effects, including sterility, heart problems, learning defects, hearing loss, and the high risk of secondary cancers caused by the treatment itself. ( more) |
Facts Today 25% of children diagnosed with cancer will not survive. But your support can and will make a difference. Thirty years ago 90% of children diagnosed with cancer lost their fight. Progress has been made but we are not there yet. Many pediatric cancer survival rates lag behind and are in desperate need of funding for research into new and innovative treatments and inevitably a cure. |
A government report in April found a “near absence” of research into pediatric cancer drugs. According to a report by the Institute of Medicine, a non-profit group that advises the government on health policy, approximately half of the oncology drugs to treat children are at least 20 years old. Additionally, pharmaceutical companies do not test their drugs on pediatric cancers because they run a risk of failure with a drug that has been effective in the more lucrative adult market. (more)
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Bound by HopeAgainst this bleak scenario, a group of ordinary parents bound by extraordinary circumstances founded the Band of Parents. Our mission is to raise money to further support and accelerate the research of the talented and dedicated team of doctors and scientists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), the institution that treats more cases of neuroblastoma than any other hospital in the world. Our children's doctors are investigating exciting treatment options that they believe could help save more children with neuroblastoma. The institution is working on several pioneering treatments including a humanized version of the 3F8 antibody, initially used exclusively at MSKCC. (more)
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Serious Challenges Most children will undergo numerous rounds of high dose chemotherapy, complicated surgeries, intense radiation therapy, endless x-rays, and scans that expose them to levels of radiation known to be dangerous. Children will also be subjected to numerous drugs and medicines often not developed or even proven safe for children. The treatments are torture for children to undergo and emotionally devastating for parents to watch. Kids lose their hair and pink cheeks, become vulnerable to serious infections and viruses when chemotherapy destroys their immunity, and often cry in pain during countless invasive procedures. And it is unbearable to know that 70% of these children will still die in their anguished parents’ arms, their bodies overcome by a ruthless killer and their eyes full of fear and confusion, not understanding why their loving parents and committed doctors could not make them better.
Reality Why is there no effective treatment for advanced neuroblastoma? The answer is simple and devastating: there is not enough money for research. Yet, consider this - since the 1950s the rate of children surviving leukemia shot from 10% to 80%. Similarly, the survival rates for other types of cancers, like breast cancer for example, have also improved significantly thanks to extensive research that developed innovative and less invasive treatment options. In contrast, children diagnosed with cancer are faced with woefully inadequate funding from the government – and a lack of interest from the pharmaceutical industry, because orphan diseases like neuroblastoma promise little or no profit. Unfortunately no profit leaves pharmaceutical companies with little to no incentive to develop treatments. Children diagnosed with neuroblastoma deserve better odds of survival on par with most other cancers. Cancer kills more children per year than cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, asthma and AIDS combined. But pediatric cancers collectively receive less than 3% of the National Cancer Institutes $3.1 billion dollar annual funded research portfolio of 2009 (more). For every dollar spent on a patient with breast cancer, less than 3 cents is spent on a child with cancer. Aren’t children our most precious resource? How can you put a price on a child’s life? | |
