KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – 16,000 children a year will be diagnosed with cancer and roughly 4 percent of all federal cancer research funding goes towards pediatric cancer.

East Tennessee Children’s Hospital is not a research hospital but it is a part of a network of doctors called the Children’s Oncology Group.

Group Chair of COG and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Seattle Children’s Hospital, Doug Hawkins said they’ve come a long way with survival rates but there’s still a long way to go.

“A child diagnosed when I was born, had a very minimal chance of survival,” said Hawkins. “Now, we expect more than 80% of children who are diagnosed today to survive for at least five years, and most of those children will be cured.

Source: Doctors hope for the future of pediatric cancer research