Cancer survival rate among children improves dramatically

The survival rate among children and young people affected by cancer in Belgium has dramatically improved in recent years, according to figures from the cancer registry of the Belgian Society of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology. In the early 1960s, out of one million boys aged up to 19, 90 died every year from cancer. Among girls, the figure was 70. “The mortality rate has drastically decreased for both sexes to twenty-five to thirty a year, for one million boys and girls,” reports the society’s journal. The five-year survival rate among boys aged up to 14 is 84%; for girls it is 86%. Among adolescents, girls also have a slightly higher survival rate: 89% compared to 84% for boys. “This positive trend is due to several factors: better prognosis, ability to characterise genetic tumours, a real implementation of the therapeutic arsenal and drug combinations against certain types of tumours,” according to the Journal. On average, 320 children aged up to 14 and 180 adolescents aged between 15 and 19 are affected by cancer in Belgium.