Childhood cancer survival should be improved, study shows

10/12/2013
The recently published Lancet Oncology paper by Gemma Gatta et al. provides the EUROCARE 5  results on childhood cancer survival in Europe between 2005 - 2007 as compared to previous years. The  5-year survival for all cancers is 79.1%, as compared to 76.1% before 2001. The two main messages from the paper are :
  • No improvement in paediatric malignancies with the poorest prognosis (brain, neuroblastoma, sarcoma), while prognosis of AML remains poor;
  • Significant disparity in survival across Europe with 10 to 20 % less in Eastern European countries.
These data along with cancer survival in adults (published in the same issue of The Lancet Oncology) have been discussed in the European Parliament during a meeting organized by ‘MEPs against Cancer’ and MEP A. Peterle. The SIOPE Office made a press release covering both these important research results and the event. This is against this background that the ENCCA project (in which SIOPE is a key partner) is currently preparing a ‘long-term sustainability’ project and a strategic plan, in order to increase both cure and quality of cure in children and adolescents with cancer. More information