Recreation Programming for the Adolescent with Cancer

Cancer is a disease that affects all people regardless of culture, socio-economic background, race, gender, and age. Although cancer is rare among those younger than 20 years of age, childhood cancers rank fourth as a cause of death (Gloeckler-Ries, Percy, & Bunin, 1999). Although over the past two decades childhood cancer mortality has declined dramatically, unfortunately, the rate of cancer incidence among adolescents, in the United States, has increased from 183 per million in 1975-79 to slightly over 203.8 per million in 1990-95 (Smith, Gurney, & Gloeckler-Ries, 1999). According to the National Cancer Institute (1999), the incidence of cancer among adolescents (1519 year-olds) is substantially greater than the incidence of cancer among children younger than 15 years of age. Survival rates for adolescents with cancer vary depending on the type of cancer from 22% for individuals with acute myeloid leukemia to 90% for those with Hodgkin's disease-germ cell tumors, thyroid carcinoma, and melanoma (Smith, Gurney, & Gloeckler-Ries, 1999).