(KVEO) This year an estimated 1.6 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer and more than 580,000 will die from it.
However, there is an even more alarming statistic.
Among Hispanics, cancer has now overtaken heart disease as the leading killer. This also includes a rise among kids with cancer.
"The number is rising and it is not going away, well as we are the Rio Grande Valley is primarily Hispanic and unfortunately we have continued to see the level of childhood cancer in Hispanics rise," says Victoria Guerra of the Vannie E. Cook JR. Children's Cancer and Hematology Clinic in McAllen, Texas.
Victoria Vasquez was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 12.
"You know it just happened so fast, but a good thing is that my daughter was referred to this clinic, we didn't have to move out of the valley." Said Aurora Vasquez, Victoria's mother.
The American Cancer Society also says Hispanics are more likely to struggle with cancers of the stomach, liver, cervix, and gallbladder in contrast to other races and mix that with such a high obesity rate among Hispanics in the valley is only making a bigger threat.
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