Childhood cancer mortality further down

In 2016, cancer was the death cause for 32 boys and 29 girls. Almost fifty years ago, the number of childhood cancer deaths was still four times as high. The largest drop in cancer mortality among children was recorded in the 1970s and 1980s. After this, the decline in mortality slowed down.

Decline mainly in leukaemia death rate

The most common types of cancer deaths in children are from brain cancer and leukaemia. The decline in children’s cancer mortality is largely due to fewer leukaemia deaths. In the early 1970s, as many as 100 children died of leukaemia per year on average, i.e. over 40 percent of all childhood cancer deaths. In recent years, leukaemia has been responsible for fewer than 20 child deaths on a yearly basis.

Cancer leading death cause among children

In the period from 2007 to 2016, cancer was the leading cause of death among children aged 3 to 11 years; three in five cases were related to cancer.
With a share of 42 percent (2007 to 2016), brain tumours accounted for the highest cancer mortality among children, versus 22 percent of deaths caused by leukaemia. Other relatively frequent types of cancer among children are adrenal gland tumours (10 percent) and bone and joint cancer (7 percent).

Every year, over 400 children (0 to 14 years) are diagnosed with cancer. Due to improved treatment and care, cancer survival rates have increased steadily.