Column: Making a case for better pediatric cancer funding

MARION - Cancer. It's a scary word to hear at any age, especially as a child.

A shocking 4 percent of the National Cancer Institute's budget is used for children's cancer research, that in turn forces parents to raise money for treatments themselves.

Children's cancer should receive more funding because it is the leading cause of death for children under 15 years old.

The NCI gives 4 percent of its budget to researching children's cancer. In numbers, this means $26.4 million goes toward pediatric clinical trials. Research for AIDS gets $254 million and $584 million goes toward breast cancer researching. Every year, there's an estimated $30 million gap in funding for childhood cancer research.

This happens to be one of the many reasons children's cancer research should receive more than four percent funding.

Due to the lack in funding, small children now are getting adult strength chemo. Chemotherapy has severe side effects no matter what age you are, and when children receive adult strength medicine the effects hit even harder. Some of the short term side effects include increased infection risk, allergic reaction to medication, sores in the mouth or gut, bleeding and so many other harsh effects. There also are a number of long term side effects such as nerve damage, damage to other organs like the heart, kidneys, liver or lungs, and another cancer that occurs later in time. The fact small children are getting chemo made for adults shows why there should be more funding for childhood cancer.

There are more than 100 different types of cancer that exist, so some may wonder why should children's cancer get special attention? Some think funding for cancer research should be divided on how common a cancer is, and how deadly it is. According to the New York Times writer Tara Parker-Pope's article titled 'Cancer Funding: Does It Add Up?”, '... breast cancer receives the most funding per new case” by getting $2,596 per new case. But, the average age a child with cancer lives to is 8 years old. When children die at this age, they are missing out on around 69 years of expected life. There are children who die even earlier than this, making them lose out on even more life.

Even though there are other cancers that claim more lives than childhood cancer, pediatric cancer should be getting more than 4 percent of the research budget.

There are many things you can do to help, some as simple as donating to cancer research or as big as hosting your own awareness event to help spread the word to people who might not know anything about pediatric cancer researching.