July 17 Marks the Inaugural Glioblastoma Awareness Day in the United States

Today is Glioblastoma Awareness Day, a recognition established for July 17, 2019 by an official resolution that was approved by the United States Senate. The resolution (S.Res. 245) creates a unique opportunity to focus the nation’s attention on glioblastoma (GBM).

Glioblastoma is an aggressive, high-grade tumor that can occur anywhere in the brain or spinal cord. According to the Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States, the 5-year survival rate for children with glioblastomas is about 20 percent.

More than 13,000 men, women and children are diagnosed with glioblastoma each year. In adults, it is the most common type of brain cancer; in children, glioblastomas account for approximately 3-15% of primary central nervous system tumors. Regardless of age, these tumors are among the most complex and treatment-resistant type of brain cancer, claiming the lives of countless loved ones.

Glioblastoma Awareness Day is an opportunity to honor those that have been affected and take action to defeat these devastating tumors. We urge you to follow the hashtags #GBMDay and #DefeatGBM on social media and share/re-tweet often. Our friends at the National Brain Tumor Society are leading the way on this campaign, so be sure you’re following them at @NBTStweets.

Finally, we urge you to reach out to your Senators today: As advocates in the childhood cancer community know all too well, funding for research is largely dependent on federal funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), which supports academic researchers and much of the clinical trials infrastructure that treats and cares for our kids. Join us in emphasizing to Congress the importance of supporting an appropriations bill with strong funding for the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, and childhood cancer research.

Use this alert to tell Congress that children with cancer are counting on them now more than ever.