Cancer is officially the number one cause of childhood death in US

Cancer Officially Number One Cause of Childhood Death in U.S.
September 26, 2013 | By WakingTimes | 3 Replies


Melissa Melton, Guest
Waking Times
The number one reason blamed for childhood deaths in America used to be accidents; now it’s cancer.

ABC News is reporting today that cancer has officially outranked every other cause of childhood death in this country:

Cancer is the leading cause of childhood death in the United States, with 13,500 new diagnoses each year according to the American Cancer Institute. One out of every 300 boys and one out of every 333 girls will develop cancer before their 20th birthday, according to the American Society of Clinical Oncology.


Cancer in America has seen a sharp increase over the last 100 years across all age groups. Data from the U.S. Public Health Service estimates that cancer death rates in 1900 were around 64 per 100,000; that number has increased almost threefold to 188.7 per 100,000 in 2005.

In fact, the chances of an American being diagnosed with some type of cancer in his or her lifetime is now one in two.

This dramatic increase over a relatively short span of time obviously suggests environmental factors are at play here. So why haven’t all these charitable “run for the cure” cancer drives — fundraisers that happen year after year after year as cancer rates only continue to grow — ever cured anything? Tweet