Every year, more than 200,000 children under the age of 15 are diagnosed with cancer worldwide, and nearly 75,000 die from the disease. Most of these deaths occur in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, even though childhood cancer is more common in Europe and North America. In high-income countries, over 80% of children survive, while the global average is just 37%. Why is the gap so large?

Striking differences
An international study using data from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), analyzed data from nearly 17,000 children in 23 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The results show striking differences: in Puerto Rico, almost 80% of children with central nervous system tumors survive three years after diagnosis, compared to only 32% in Algeria. For leukemia, the disparity is even greater – from 30% in Kenya to 90% in Puerto Rico.

Survival is closely linked to a country’s level of development. These variations largely reflect differences in healthcare systems and can be attributed to late diagnosis, limited treatment options, suboptimal quality of care, or treatment abandonment.

In addition, many countries lack reliable cancer registries, making it difficult to determine the true scale of the problem.

“The stark differences in survival – from over 80% in high-income countries to less than 40% in some low- and middle-income countries – underscore the urgent need to act”, comments first-author Dagrun Slettebø Daltveit from the University of Bergen.

Better monitoring is needed

“The World Health Organization (WHO) has set a goal to increase global survival to at least 60% by 2030”, says Dr Isabelle Soerjomataram, Deputy Head of the Cancer Surveillance Branch at IARC,

“To achieve this, countries must invest in population-based cancer registries to measure disease burden and track progress in childhood cancer control”.

The study provides essential benchmarks for monitoring improvements and demonstrates that many more lives can be saved through early diagnosis and effective treatment.

“Our findings support the WHO goal of achieving at least 60% survival for children with cancer by 2030. To reach this target, investment in cancer registries and health infrastructure is critical”, Ms. Daltveit adds.

This research is part of the Cancer Survival in Countries in Transition (SURVCAN-3) project, initiated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in collaboration with the IARC Global Initiative on Cancer Registry Development (GICR).

Link to the study: https://academic.oup.com/jnci/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jnci/djaf321/8378336