Cancer is a word that evokes many different images and emotions. Nothing in this world can prepare a person for the utter devastation of finding out that someone has been diagnosed with cancer, especially when this person is a child. Over the past twenty-five years, the amount of research and the survival rate of children with cancer have increased dramatically. Despite these successes, funding for the new research needed to keep these children alive and well is minimal and too dependent on short-term grants. Of the billions of dollars spent each year on cancer treatment and research, less than a third is allocated to pediatric cancer research. Given the media focus on adult cancers, pediatric cancer research is underfunded. To maintain the increasing survival rate of children with pediatric cancer and support those who have survived the disease, better funding is critical to further develop and promote research. Government funding has proven essential and effective in the fight against cancer. On December 23, 1971, President Nixon signed the National Cancer Act, which promised to fund research into the cure. Financial aid like this has directly benefited the survival rates of people diagnosed with cancer. Forty years ago, before such funding was provided, when a child was diagnosed with cancer, most doctors considered the patient terminally ill and supportive care was almost all that was offered to the family. However, in recent decades, thanks to research and participation in clinical trials conducted with funding, most children have recovered. Due to the creation of new drugs and therapies as a result of government aid, the rat survived...... half of the paper...... 2003. USA Today . February 26, 2011 .Janes-Hodder, Jonna and Nancy Keene. Childhood Cancer: A Parent's Guide to Solid Tumors. Sevastopol, CA: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1999.McCaul, Michael. Pediatric cancer remains woefully underfunded. September 16, 2010. Capitol Hill Publishing Company. February 24, 2011 .Pediatric Cancer Foundation. Information on pediatric cancer. 2010. February 10, 2011. Rafinski, Karen. Cancer and children. March 14, 1999. February 10, 2011. Steen, Grant R., and Joseph Mirro. Childhood Cancer: A St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Handbook. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publisher, 2000. Swati, Majumder. Facts about childhood cancer. February 10 2011 .