Every year 12,000 children in the U.S. are diagnosed with cancer. But even with so many children needing treatment, the development of new cancer remedies for kids is far behind those for adults. Many young lives are lost, because potential cures are just out of reach.
At nine-months-old Luke Neuhedel had his whole life ahead of him, until a visit to the hospital changed everything. Doctors told Rebecca and Paul Neuhedel their child had cancer.
"It was bad. They had seen a grapefruit sized tumor on this nine-month-old liver," said Luke's mother, Rebecca Tolson-Neuhedel.
Luke had surgery and was given chemotherapy, but the cancer kept progressing and doctors ran out of treatment options. Paul and Rebecca say there were drugs out there for adults that might have helped Luke, but they weren't approved for children.
The government won't approve a cancer drug for pediatric use until it's tested on childre. And many times pharmaceutical companies won't test on kids until adults are studied, which can take up to 10 years.
"So many times it never gets studied and the ones who lose are the children with cancer," said Mitchell Cairo who is with Columbia University. Doctor Mitchell Cairo is part of the Cure Seach Campaign which, with limited resources, is trying to test more cancer drugs for kids, while working with pharmaceutical companies to do the same.
"Many of the drugs that we use are very effective and our cure rates are up in the 65 to 75 percent rate," said Dr. Cairo.
Diagnosed with lymphoma at the age of three, Jacob Kalinowski is one of the success stories. He was given a drug specifically designed for childre. After a year and a half of treatment, his cancer is now in remission.
But not every family is so fortunate. After two-and-a-half years, a rare form of liver cancer took Luke Neuhedel's life.
While Rebecca and Paul have suffered great loss, they say they have not lost hope --- hope that one day more drugs will be developed to save chuildren.
"I'm gonna have very mixed emotions when they figure out a cure for this stuff, and I'm going to be very happy, but I'm going to wonder why it didn't happen sooner," said Luke's father, Paul Neuhedel.
