Survival rates give hope to children living with cancer

MORE Victorian children are surviving cancer, with the number of young patients still alive five years after diagnosis at an all-time high of 82 per cent, new data shows.

A Cancer Council Victoria report on childhood cancer shows five-year survival has improved from 68 per cent over the past 30 years, reflecting advances in treatment.

Some of the biggest gains were made in the treatment of leukaemia - the most common cancer in children - for which five-year survival increased from 75 per cent to 92 per cent.

Leukaemias accounted for 38 per cent of all new cancer diagnoses in children aged under 15 years and 44 per cent in children aged under four, with the cancer declining in frequency with increasing age.

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The report, to be launched by Health Minister David Davis today, also shows:

?About 150 children are diagnosed with cancer in Victoria each year;

?87 children died between 2008 and 2010 and 37 of them were aged under four;

?The most common fatal cancers were brain tumours (11 deaths), leukaemia (seven deaths) and liver cancer (six deaths); and

?More than 40 per cent of all deaths occurred within a year of diagnosis, and three-quarters within three years.

Director of the Royal Children's Hospital cancer centre Francoise Mechinaud said improved survival was due not just to advances in chemotherapy, but also supportive care provided to children to treat infections and ensure they were adequately nourished during cancer treatment.

Dr Mechinaud said doctors had also developed highly accurate tools to assess risk in individual patients, particularly those with leukaemia, which allowed them to tailor treatments that would deliver further survival gains in years to come.

But she said more was needed to improve survival rates for other childhood cancers, particularly brain cancer. ''Brain is a significant issue - not only can the tumour be quite aggressive, but there are issues about whether we can do surgery because some areas of the brain are so crucial,'' she said.

Cancer Council chief executive Todd Harper said that although cancer was rare in Victorian children, it remained the second highest cause of death after accidents and the most common cause of death from disease.

''The increase in survival demonstrates we are getting better at treating childhood cancers, and provides hope for the more than 150 Victorian children and their families who are diagnosed with cancer each year,'' he said.

Source: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/survival-rates-give-hope-to-children-living-with-cancer-20121016-27p38.html

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