Measuring Up - A Health Surveillance Update on Canadian Children and Youth

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Cancer Survival

There has been a marked improvement in survival for children with cancer and it is now estimated that more than two-thirds of children diagnosed with cancer will survive at least 10 years.

The goal of childhood cancer control is to reduce the risk of developing cancer and improve the survival and long-term outcome of children who have cancer. Indicators of the effectiveness of cancer treatments should focus on years of life saved, and various measures of quality of life. Survival, the interval between diagnosis and death, is typically used as a proxy measure of years of life saved. The one-, three- and five-year survival rates are the number of newly diagnosed childhood cancer cases that are still living at one, three and five years as a proportion of the total number of cases.

Survival rates are less readily available than incidence and mortality rates. In Canada, the most recent childhood cancer survival data, from 1995-96, demonstrate one-year survival rates of over 90%, three-year survival rates of over 80% and an estimated five-year survival rate of 75%.^(6,7)

In Figure 5, the survival of Canadian children is compared with survival rates obtained by the United States Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program of the National Cancer Institute Program (US SEER).⁽⁸⁾ The one-, three- and five-year survival rates for childhood cancer from the US SEER registries, the Canadian registry data and the data collected by the Canadian Childhood Cancer Surveillance and Control Program all show continued improvement in overall survival.^(6,7,8)

Figure 5: Childhood Cancer Survival Rates, ages 0-14 years, Canada and the United States, selected years

Source: Cancer Bureau, LCDC^(6,8)

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Survival rates for leukemia in Canada are comparable to rates from the EuroCare Study and the US SEER registries.^(8,9) Five-year survival rates for children with leukemia in these countries have improved steadily from 45% in the late 1970s to over 70% by 1985.

Data limitations
The availability of survival data is limited at both the national and international level. Linkages between incidence and mortality records in Canada have provided some survival statistics; however, there is no historical perspective on survival in Canada.

Summary
According to the available data, survival for children with cancer has improved significantly in Canada and abroad. It is estimated that more than two-thirds of children in whom cancer is diagnosed will survive at least 10 years. Ongoing surveillance of survival rates among children with cancer will provide some valuable information to assess the effectiveness of cancer treatment in Canada.

Unless referenced otherwise, childhood cancer survival statistics are the product of the Cancer Bureau, LCDC⁽⁶⁾

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