| Chapter 2: | Background |
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Unfortunately, estimates of the anticipated incidence of cancer for adolescents ages 15 and older in 2007 were not readily available, reflecting yet again the tendency for this important group to be overlooked. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that in the United States, cancer remains responsible for more deaths of children (from infancy through adolescence) than any other illness (American Cancer Society, 2007). The cancers of children, adolescents, and young adults up to age 20 combined are also the sixth most common cancer in the United States (Ries et al., 1999). According to the American Cancer Society (2007), overall costs of cancer in 2006 were approximately $206.3 billion, with $78.2 billion for direct medical costs (total of all health expenditures), $17.9 billion for indirect morbidity costs (cost of lost productivity due to illness), and $110.2 billion for indirect mortality costs (cost of lost productivity due to premature death).
Overall Trends
As alluded to earlier, age, gender, and race are factors in the development of childhood cancer. Children ages 5 and under are most typically affected by leukemia, neuroblastoma, Wilms’ tumor, retinoblastoma, and hepatoblastoma, while the incidence of osteosarcoma, Ewing’s tumor, and Hodgkin’s lymphoma gradually increases with age (Ward, 2000). Research has also found that children under 5 years of age and adolescents ages 15 to 19 years have similar and much higher cancer rates—199.9 per million and 202.2 per million, respectively—as compared to the two intermediary age groups of 5- to 9-year-olds (110.2 per million) and 10- to 14-year-olds (117.3 per million; Ries et al., 1999; Ward, 2000).