Childhood cancer facts

Childhood cancer is rare, but highly treatable Each year, more than 160,000 children are diagnosed with cancer and approximately 90,000 die of cancer. Childhood cancer is relatively rare In the 1990s, age-standardised incidence rates were 140 per million for European children (0–14 years); ASR rates for the 52 countries in the 1998 IARC study on the international incidence of childhood cancer have a rough average of 120 per million.

Childhood cancer responds well to prompt and effective treatment

• In the USA, childhood cancer was almost uniformly fatal before the mid-1960s, but survival rates improved to 55% in the 1970s and better than 75% in the 1990s.
• In Europe, 5-year survival rates improved from 44% for children diagnosed in the 1970s to 64% for children diagnosed in the 1980s and 74% for children diagnosed in the 1990s.
• Improved survival rates are largely due to better treatment and improved quality of care. Chemotherapy was introduced for the treatment of childhood leukaemia in the 1940s and has been incorporated into treatment regimes that previously relied on surgery or radiotherapy for other common childhood cancers. In the USA, seven out of ten children now receive their care in special paediatric cancer treatment centres.

But not in the developing world…

• 80% of children with cancer live in developing countries. They are often diagnosed too late or not diagnosed at all.
• Without access to life-saving treatment, more than one in two of these children diagnosed with cancer will die.
• Treating childhood cancer doesn't have to be expensive. By developing treatment regimes that take account of a country's medical facilities and providing proper training and advice to local doctors, we can make great progress on relatively limited funds.
• The international community needs to recognise the plight of children with cancer as a priority.
• HIV/AIDS remains a critical priority for the health of children in sub-Saharan Africa, but cancer is emerging as a major cause of childhood death in Asia, Central and South America, northwest Africa and the Middle East, where fewer children are now dying from preventable infectious diseases.
• A coordinated strategy by the global cancer control community – one that combines innovative science and sound public health policies – can save a large proportion of the 90,000 young lives lost every year.

Sources

• "Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2001, with a Special Feature Regarding Survival", Cancer, vol 101, no 1, July 1, 2004.
• Global Action Against Cancer (Geneva: UICC/WHO, updated edition 2005).
• Ribeiro R.C. & Pui C-H. (2005), "Saving the Children - Improving Childhood Cancer Treatment in Developing Countries", New England Journal of Medicine, 352; 21: 2158-2160.
• Steliarova-Foucher E., Stiller C. et al. (2004), "Geographical patterns and time trends of cancer incidence and survival among children and adolescents in Europe since the 1970s (the ACCIS project): an epidemiological study", The Lancet, 364: 2097-105.
• Tanneberger S., Cavalli F., Pannuti F., eds., Cancer in Developing Countries: The Great Challenge for Oncology in the 21st Century (Munich: Zuckschwerdt, 2004).