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Key Statistics for Childhood Cancers
How common is cancer in children?
About 9,620 children in the United States under the age of 15 will be diagnosed with cancer in 2024.
Cancer incidence rates in children overall have stabilized since 2015, after increasing since at least 1975.
Survival rates for children with cancer
Because of major treatment advances in recent decades, about 85% of children with cancer now live 5 years or more after being diagnosed with cancer.
Overall, this is a huge increase since the mid-1970s, when the 5-year survival rate was about 58%. Still, survival rates can vary a great deal depending on the type of cancer and other factors. Survival rates for a specific type of childhood cancer can be found in our information for that cancer type.
Mortality in children with cancer
After accidents, cancer is the second leading cause of death in children ages 1 to 14. About 1,040 children under the age of 15 are expected to die from cancer in 2024.
The cancer death rate has declined by more than half from 1970 to 2021 in both children and adolescents, largely due to improvements in treatment and high participation in clinical trials.
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- References
The American Cancer Society medical and editorial content team
Our team is made up of doctors and oncology certified nurses with deep knowledge of cancer care as well as editors and translators with extensive experience in medical writing.
American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts & Figures 2024. Atlanta: American Cancer Society, 2024.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. WISQARS Leading Causes of Death Visualization Tool. Accessed at https://wisqars.cdc.gov/lcd/ on May 22, 2024.
National Cancer Institute. Cancer in Children and Adolescents. 2023. Accessed at https://www.cancer.gov/types/childhood-cancers/child-adolescent-cancers-fact-sheet on May 23, 2024.
Last Revised: May 28, 2024
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