More Cancer Treatments, Less Deaths Among Children and Teens

Deaths related to cancer among children and teens of all race groups in the United States have dropped by 24% between 2001 and 2021, notably thanks to game-changing treatments.

“The overall message is good news,” says Sally Curtin, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statistician and the lead author of the report. Death rates “declined across the board: all the five-year age groups, male, female, and all the race groups.”

According to the CDC, the death rates for Black, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic white youths up to 19 years old comprised 92% of all youth cancer deaths in 2021. Death rates among children in those groups dropped by 15-17% within the first decade, but after 2011, only children – white and nine and younger – saw “significant” declines. An immunotherapy called Kymriah from the pharmaceutical company Novartis turned out to be a “game-changer” treatment approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2017 to treat leukaemia in children and young adults.