On January 24th U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) and David Vitter (R-LA) introduced legislation in the Senate that would require the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to establish a National Childhood Brain Tumor Prevention Network. Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) reintroduced the legislation in the House (first introduced September 26, 2008 as HR 7153 .
The new network is expected to conduct research, provide grants, and issue guidance and recommendations toward preventing and curing pediatric brain cancers. You can read the bill here: H.R. 653.
According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), brain tumors are the third most common type of childhood cancer, after leukemia and lymphoma. Unlike leukemia and lymphoma, childhood brain tumors do not have the same favorable prognosis. Each year, approximately 2,200 children and adolescents are diagnosed with malignant central nervous system tumors, over 90 percent of which are located within the brain. Children diagnosed with malignant brain tumors have only a 60 percent survival rate. Those that do survive have long-term health problems due to the invasiveness of brain tumors and treatment.
Enhancing the lives of families and children by providing education and advocacy, emotional and practical support, and most of all... HOPE....because kids can't fight cancer alone!
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