Survival from childhood cancer in northern England, 1968–2005

Abstract

Background:Cancer is the second most common cause of death in children in the developed world. The study investigated patterns and trends in survival from childhood cancer in patients from northern England diagnosed 1968–2005.Methods:Five-year survival was analysed using Kaplan–Meier estimation for four successive time periods. Cox regression analysis was used to explore associations with age and demographic factors.Results:The study included 2958 cases (1659 males and 1299 females). Five-year survival for all cancers improved significantly from 39% in 1968–1977 to 79% in 1998–2005 (P<0.001). Five-year survival for leukaemia increased from 24% to 81% (P<0.001), lymphoma from 46% to 87% (P<0.001), central nervous system tumours from 43% to 73% (P<0.001), bone tumours from 21% to 75% (P<0.001), soft tissue sarcoma from 30% to 58% (P<0.001) and germ cell tumours from 59% to 97% (P<0.001). Survival was worse for cases of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (P<0.001) and astrocytoma (P<0.001) aged 10–14 years compared with 0–4-year olds.Conclusion:There were marked improvements in survival over a 38-year time span. Future work should examine factors that could influence further improvement in survival such as diagnosis delays.

A Systematic Review of Interventions with Siblings of Pediatric Cancer Patients

“…The current survival rate in South Korea is similar to that of the United States from 1995 to 1999 [23] and of Britain from 1998 to 2005 [8]. In the United States, the 5-year survival rate increased from 79.3% in 1995-1999 to 83.1% in 2004-2010 [19,23].…”

“…To enable comparison with several previous studies of childhood cancer, the age group in this study was 0-14 years old [6][7][8]. Diagnoses were grouped into 12 main diagnostic groups and 47 subgroups according to the International Classification of Childhood Cancer, 3rd edition (ICCC-3) [9], which is based on the International Classification of Disease for Oncology, 3rd edition (ICD-O-3).…”

Children With Cancer and HIV Infection

“…Although this figure is much lower than the 79% to 82% survival reported from countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, or Canada, it is close to published figures from China (55.7%) and compares favorably with the 40% survival recorded in India. 25,26 The comparison of crude survival figures (Table 2) found a slightly lower rate for the HIV-positive children than for HIV negative, but the difference is not statistically significant. The interpretation of this finding is complicated by the considerable discrepancy in the types and distribution of various cancers in the 2 groups.…”

Does referral to specialist paediatric palliative care services reduce hospital admissions in oncology patients at the end of life?

“…As no previous literature exists on hospital admissions occurring during end of life care for childhood cancer, the variables included within the analysis as mentioned previously were chosen based on standard variables used within the literature of survival of childhood cancer (Wilkinson et al , 2001; Magnani et al , 2006; Basta et al , 2011; van Laar et al , 2012). The impact of referral on SPPCS was explored using negative binomial regression modelling (which was chosen over Poisson regression due to overdispersion), with the total number of hospital admissions as the main outcome.…”