U.S. children cancer death rate down due to better survival
The cancer death rate for children in the U.S. has declined sharply — down 20 percent from 1990 to 2004 — thanks to better treatment of leukemia and other cancers, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Friday. The cancer death rate for U.S. children was 34.2 per million for children up to age 19 in 1990, but fell to 27.3 per million in 2004.
”It’s not that we’re having less cancer diagnosed. The incidence rates, the new-case rates are the same. It’s just that we’re getting better survival,” the CDC’s Dr. Lori Pollack said.
The blood and bone marrow cancers known as leukemia caused about 26 percent of the 2004 cancer deaths, with brain and other nervous system tumors causing another 25 percent. Death rates from leukemia dropped more sharply than other cancers, by 3 percent per year from 1990 to 2004, according to the report.
Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, said better drugs and improvements in how drugs are used are helping improve leukemia survival, along with effective use of bone marrow transplants.
”We’ve made tremendous advances against pediatric cancer. We’d like to see greater advances. Kids are still dying from it,” Brawley said.
(Agencies)
