cancer Information

Childhood and teenage/young people's cancer is the leading cause of death in children, adolescents and young people. It is estimated that 400,000 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer each year of which approximately 4,500 of those diagnosed are from the UK. 2,600 of these are young people, this is 7 a day.

The most common types of cancer include leukaemia, brain tumours, Wilms tumour and lymphomas however there is roughly 76 different types of childhood and adolescents cancers. 

The World Health Organization report that 80% of children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer in high income areas are cured however that percentage drops to less that 30% in lower income areas. It is believed this is due to delayed diagnosis, an inability to obtain an accurate diagnosis, inaccessible therapy, abandonment of treatment, death from toxicity (side effects), and avoidable relapse.   

Young adult females are diagnosed with cancer more than males in the UK and survival rates of more than five years has significantly improved in the past twenty years however it remains lower than 86%  in both children and young adults, different cancers have different survival rates. The trend of survival increase was not uniform across the entire period, and there are several cancers with poorer prognosis which there has been little evidence of improvement in the most recent periods, notably ependymoma, medulloblastoma, hepatoblastoma,  Ewing sarcoma in children and colorectal carcinomas in adolescents and young people. Adolescents and young people continued to have worse survival than children for osteosarcoma, Ewing sarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma,  without any recent improvement. However, while adolescent and young people survival remains worse than  childhood survival for acute lymphoid and myeloid leukaemia and non-Hodgkin  lymphomas, the gap has reduced over time.

Only around 2% of cancer funding in the UK* is spent on research that is fully dedicated to childhood and young adult cancer. 

*estimated amount based on data from the NCRI Cancer Research Database (CaRD) for 2018/19 

 In December 2021, WHO and St Jude Children’s Research Hospital launched the Global Platform for Access to Childhood Cancer Medicines, the first of its kind, to provide an uninterrupted supply of quality-assured childhood cancer medicines with end-to-end support from selecting to dispensing medicines according to best possible care standards. 

For Further information visit The World Health Organisation, Children with cancer UK and the Teenage Cancer Trust. 

Reference from:

The World Health Organisation, 2022

Public Health England,  Children, teenagers and young adults  UK cancer statistics report 2021.