So some of you might have read...Ted Kennedy came through surgery yesterday okay. As you know, he was diagnosed recently with a brain tumor, a glioma in the left parietal lobe. There has been speculation that his tumor is a gliobastoma. A glioblastome is generally considered a high grade tumor. When speaking of brain tumors, doctors use "low grade" and "high grade and generally not "malignant and "benign". Any mass growing in your brain, either low grade or high grade is potentially lethal.
Now to get to the point of this post today. It will interesting to see if Mr. Kennedy's brain tumor has any effect on the cancer research budget. 13% of the billion dollar cancer research is currently allocated towards brain tumors. Only 4% of that goes toward pediatric brain tumors.
The brain tumor community is wondering just that. Brain cancer moms, dads, grandmothers, grandfathers and so on, it is time for a nationwide mobilization. It's time for us contact our elected officials and push for a larger allocation for pediatric brain tumor research and passage of the "Conquer Childhood Cancer Act".
America, trust me, you've never seen mobilization, until you've witnessed the nationwide mobilization of cancer moms and dads.
Chemo and radiation take such a toll on a person, and their family as well. My thoughts and prayers are with all the kids and adults, including Mr. Kennedy, who are under going treatment for the most deadly of all childhood cancers, a brain tumor.
Until our government is convinced that more money should allocated to pediatric brain tumor research, it is up to us the private sector of America to fund pediatric brain tumor research.
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