Financing care for children with cancer.

Abstract

Although childhood cancers are rare, cancer is the second leading cause of death among children. Over the course of the last 2 decades, improved therapies have dramatically reduced the number of children who die of cancer. However, the incidence of cancer among children has not fallen. Consequently, the number of children who survive cancer has increased rapidly. As a result, greater attention needs to be paid to the resources available to meet the long-term medical, rehabilitative, psychologic, and social needs of children with cancer.