Childhood Blood Cancer Survival Rates Improve

HEIDELBERG, Germany, Sept. 10 -- Survival rates for the four major childhood blood cancers are continuing to rise, researchers here said.

The survival rate has improved over the last 15 years. Five- and 10-year survival rates for U.S. children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, Hodgkin's lymphoma, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma are approximately 90% and for acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia lags at less than 60%.


A period analysis of the years 2000 through 2004, for instance, would reflect survival of all patients during those five years, regardless of when they were diagnosed. In contrast, the usual method would look at all patients newly diagnosed during those years, a process that could not be completed until years later.

The SEER database included 3,622 children diagnosed with both forms of leukemia over the three time periods and 1,045 with the lymphomas.

Analysis showed that the five- and 10-year survival rates during 1990 through 1994 were:

80.2% and 73.4% for acute lymphoblastic leukemia
41.9% and 38.7% for acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia
76.6% and 73% for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
96.1% and 94.4% for Hodgkin's lymphoma

The researchers also used a new modeling technique to project 10-year survival rates for children diagnosed in the period from 2005 through 2009 and suggested they would be 88% for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, 63.9% for acute non-lymphoblastic leukemia, 90.6% for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and 94.3% for Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The study is good news for parents, patients, and society as a whole, according to Alan Wayne, M.D., of the National Cancer Institute, and colleagues.