- Casa de la Amistad began with one shelter for children with cancer and their families who came from all over the country and didn’t have enough money to pay for room and board.
- In Mexico, cancer is the second cause of death among children from the ages of 5 to 14.
- Cancer is what happens when a certain kind of cell in the human body loses its normal control mechanisms and starts to grow in a way that the body can no longer regulate.
- About 650 new cases are diagnosed every year nationwide; of these, 240 are in patients with a right to care in Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) health care facilities.
- In recent decades, advances in diagnostic techniques and cancer treatments among children have increased their survival rate by as much as 76%.
- Cancer treatment in children includes chemotherapy (the use of medications to kill the cancer cells), radiation therapy (application of radiation to kill the cancer cells), and surgery (to remove the cancer cells or tumors).
- Until only two decades ago, the probability of curing a child with a brain tumor was minimal, basically only in cases of benign tumors.
- Brain tumors are the most frequent solid neoplasms found in pediatrics.
- Casa de la Amistad has taken on the task of starting up a research lab to study the biological behavior of brain tumors in our children.
