Children's Cancer Death Rates Drop by 24 Percent in the Last Decade in UK

Good news for parents who are worried about their little angels. A new report by Cancer Research UK shows that the rate of children dying from cancer has dropped by 24% in the last decade. The study shows that death rates for all cancers in children aged 14 and under have fallen to almost 23 deaths per million today from around 30 deaths per million in 2004.

In the latest figures, the number of kids dying from cancer each year in the country has dropped to around 260 from around 330 a decade ago. But this still means, in the UK, around five children die from cancer every week.

Around 1,500 children are diagnosed with cancer every year in the UK. Overall, survival for kid’s cancers has tripled since the 1960s, and three quarters of children with cancer are now cured.

According to experts, much of this success is due to managing childhood cancers by combining a number of different chemotherapy drugs. Cancer Research UK played a crucial role in the clinical trials that proved the benefits of these combined treatments. Study to improve imaging and radiotherapy techniques is also playing its part.

“Although we’re losing fewer young lives to cancer, a lot more needs to be done. There are still children’s cancers where progress has been limited – such as brain and bone tumours. Cancer Research UK’s long-standing commitment to investing in clinical trials for children with cancer has been a major factor in developing today’s treatments and is pivotal to ongoing research that will offer new hope to the children and their families,” said professor Pam Kearns, director of the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit in Birmingham.

The professor also added that it’s vital that we find less toxic and even more effective treatments.

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Source-Medindia