May Is Brain Tumor Awareness Month

You Need to Know:

- Brain tumors are the #1 cancer-related cause of death for children 19 and under.
- Five-year survival rates are only 27.9 percent for males, and 30.1 percent for females.
- Only 33 percent of patients diagnosed with brain cancer will survive 5 years.
- Approximately 17,000 malignant tumors of the brain or spinal cord are diagnosed each year in the US with about 3,500 of those in children.

- 359,000+ people in the US were living with a diagnosis of brain tumor in the year 2000, including more than 26,000 children.

- For every $1 spent on a patient with prostate cancer, less than 20 cents is spent on a child with any type of cancer.

- A patient with breast cancer has triple the research resources allocated to her when compared to a child with any type of cancer.

- The funding for pediatric cancer clinical trials has gone down every year since 2003.
- As of 2008 the amount was at $26.4 million in comparison to AIDS research at $254 million.

- Brain tumors can occur at any age, but are most common among children from 3 to 12 years of age, and adults from 40 to 70.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has been the primary source of governmental funding for brain tumor research. Only about 3% of the National Cancer Institute’s research funding is allocated to all pediatric cancers with only about .5% of that 3% going to pediatric brain tumor research.

In July of 2008 Kristen Gillette, Founder and President of The Kortney Rose Foundation, began the pursuit of a month named for Brain Tumor Awareness. In 2006 the Gillette family was devastated when 9-year-old Kortney died after only a four month battle with a brain tumor. This 501(c)(3) charity was begun to help other children through the promise of research in Kortney’s memory. With the help of Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon, Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande, and Senator Jennifer Beck, bills were unanimously passed in both NJ Legislative houses on 2/23/09 and signed by Governor Corzine on 4/15/09.

The Kortney Rose Foundation has donated over $378,000 to the research program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) over the last four years. Ninety-five cents of every dollar donated goes directly to research. Please visit www.thekortneyrosefoundatioin.org for upcoming events and to donate. Want to run in the ING NYC Marathon on November 6, 2011? Email us at kortneyroseorg@aol.com. Hurry spots are going fast.

Contact Information

Kristen Gillette

President

The Kortney Rose Foundation

Contact via E-mail