Survival of European children and young adults with cancer diagnosed 1995–2002

Gatta, Gemma; Zigon, Giulia; Capocaccia, Riccardo; Coebergh, Jan Willem; Desandes, Emmanuel; Kaatsch, Peter; Pastore, Guido; Peris-Bonet, Rafael; Stiller, Charles A.; the EUROCARE Working Group,

doi:10.1016/j.ejca.2008.11.042

« Previous Next »European Journal of Cancer
Volume 45, Issue 6 , Pages 992-1005, April 2009

Survival of European children and young adults with cancer diagnosed 1995–2002

Gemma Gatta
- Department of Preventive and Predictive Medicine, Evaluative Epidemiology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Via Venezian 1, 20133 Milano, Italy
- Corresponding author: Tel.: +39 02 23903518/23902900; fax: +39 02 23903522.
Giulia Zigon
- Department of Preventive and Predictive Medicine, Evaluative Epidemiology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Via Venezian 1, 20133 Milano, Italy
Riccardo Capocaccia
- National Cancer Centre for Epidemiology, Health Surveillance and Promotion, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy
Jan Willem Coebergh
- Department of Public Health, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Emmanuel Desandes
- French National Registry of Childhood Solid Tumours, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France
Peter Kaatsch
- German Childhood Cancer Registry, Institute of Medical Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, University of Mainz, Germany
Guido Pastore
- Childhood Cancer Registry of Piedmont, CPO Piemonte, Torino, Italy
Rafael Peris-Bonet
- Registro Nacional de Tumores Infantiles (RNTI-SEHOP), Universitat de Valencia, CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Spain
Charles A. Stiller
- Childhood Cancer Research Group, Department of Paediatrics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
the EUROCARE Working Group

Received 4 June 2008; received in revised form 25 September 2008; accepted 4 November 2008. published online 24 February 2009.

Abstract

This study analyses survival in 40,392 children (age 0–14 years) and 30,187 adolescents/young adults (age 15–24 years) diagnosed with cancer between 1995 and 2002. The cases were from 83 European population-based cancer registries in 23 countries participating in EUROCARE-4. Five-year survival in countries and in regional groupings of countries was compared for all cancers combined and for major cancers. Survival for 15 rare cancers in children was also analysed.

Five-year survival for all cancers combined was 81% in children and 87% in adolescents/young adults. Between-country survival differences narrowed for both children and adolescents/young adults. Relative risk of death reduced significantly, by 8% in children and by 13% in adolescents/young adults, from 1995–1999 to 2000–2002. Survival improved significantly over time for acute lymphoid leukaemia and primitive neuroectodermal tumours in children and for non-Hodgkin lymphoma in adolescents/young adults.

Cancer survival in patients <25years is poorly documented in Eastern European countries. Complete cancer registration should be a priority for these countries as an essential part of a policy for effective cancer control in Europe.