Who Is Affected?

As mentioned last week, neuroblastoma is a cancer that affects children. According to the American Cancer Society, it is one of the more common cancers diagnosed in infants but only makes up about 6% of childhood cancers. It is rarely diagnosed after the age of 10 and is found, on average, between the ages of 1-2 years (American Cancer Society). That being said, neuroblastoma is considered a rare disease and in the United States it affects less than 200,000 children (Right Diagnosis).

Early diagnosis in children is key if they want any chance at living a happy, healthy life. With neuroblastoma there are different factors that affect a child's mortality rate. Mortality rate measures the number of deaths in a particular population over a certain period of time; generally the units are 1,000 deaths per year.

Children who are diagnosed with neuroblastoma are usually categorized into one of three risk groups: low, intermediate or high. Categorization is dependent upon different factors surrounding the diagnosis of the cancer like size and location of the tumor or how the child's cancer has responded to treatment. According to the American Cancer Society, the following statistics are available for survival rates:

• Low-risk group: Children have a 5-year survival rate that is higher than 95%.
• Intermediate-risk group: The 5-year survival rate is around 90% to 95%.
• High-risk group: Children have a 5-year survival rate around 40% to 50%

As you can imagine, this information is tough for parents to receive. However, it is important to note that these kinds of statistics are always changing. There are multiple factors that contribute to said numbers and with the new discoveries and research that is always being done, there may be an even better chance for survival of children affected by this disease.

Next week I will discuss the cause of this disease and explain whether or not there are any modifiable factors (things that may be changed to decrease the risk) that may contribute to the development of neuroblastoma in children.


Sources:

American Cancer Society: http://www.cancer.org/cancer/neuroblastoma/detailedguide/neuroblastoma-key-statistics

Right Diagnosis:
http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/n/neuroblastoma/prevalence.htm

Wikipedia - Mortality Rate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortality_rate