Some good news from Cancer Research UK, apparently the number of kids with cancer who survive has increased to over 8 out of 10 compared with just 3 out of 10 in the 1960’s/
In the last ten years the number of kids with cancer who survive five years or more has risen to 82 per cent from 79 per cent, which is a clear improvement.
The reason for the success is improved treatment which now combines a number of different chemotherapy drugs. The role of Cancer Research has been critical in providing clinical trials that has proven the fact that combined treatments can be successful.
The data suggests that children with all types of cancer have increased life expectancy those with bone and liver cancer have made particularly good progress of late. Over the last ten years survival rates for child patients with liver tumours leapt from 67 per cent to 82 per cent whilst patients with bone cancer saw a survival rate increase from 61 per cent to 68 per cent.
Still A Long Way To Go
Whilst more children are surviving for longer as a result of the research there is still a long way to go and it is important to discover kinder and better treatments for this terrible disease.
For many kinds the simple fact of surviving does not mean they are free of the disease. Even after three decades of diagnosis as many as 40 per cent of patients were at risk of sever or life threatening conditions or had died. There is still a need to find better treatments that comes with fewer side effects.
For many children, surviving does not mean that they are completely free of illness. Even 30 years after their diagnosis, 40 per cent of survivors were affected by severe or life-threatening conditions, or had died due to a chronic health condition3. There is still an urgent need to discover better treatments with fewer side effects.
“Cancer Research UK has been at the forefront of research into new treatments for childhood cancers. Although more than eight in 10 children with cancer now survive their disease for more than five years more work is needed to discover better treatments. As more and more children survive cancer, it is especially important that we concentrate on improving the quality of life after cancer.” Professor Pam Kearns, director of the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trial’s Unit in Birmingham, said
