Incidence and Mortality
Rate Trends
Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease among U.S. children between infancy and age 15. Approximately 10,730 new cases of pediatric cancer are expected to be diagnosed in children 14 years of age in 2009. Among the major types of childhood cancers, leukemias (blood cell cancers) and brain and other central nervous system (CNS) tumors account for more than half of new cases. White children are more likely than children from any other ethnic group to develop cancer.
Although the incidence of invasive cancer in children has increased slightly over the past 30 years, mortality rates have declined by 50 percent for many childhood cancers.1 The combined 5-year survival rate for all childhood cancers has improved from less than 50 percent before the 1970s to 80 percent today, and the 10-year survival rate is almost 75 percent.
Source for incidence and mortality data: Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program and the National Center for Health Statistics. Additional statistics and charts are available at http://seer.cancer.gov/.
1Incidence and mortality data reflect cancers in children 0–18 years of age.
The Web site of the National Cancer Institute (http://www.cancer.gov)
[ad code=1 align=center]