Childhood Cancer

Heartbreaking facts about childhood cancer

Australia has one of the highest rates of childhood cancer in the world.
Despite advancements in treatment, cancer kills more Australian children every week than any other disease. This is a heartbreaking reality that we are determined to change.

Australian childhood cancer statistics‍

• 1,000 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer every year
• 3 children die every week from cancer
• 1 in 5 children diagnosed with cancer do not survive
• 80% of children who survive cancer have long-term effects from their treatment
• 70 potential years of life are lost when a child dies from cancer
• 400,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed worldwide every year in children and adolescents
  

“Children are dying from cancer every week in Australia and around the world. We desperately need better treatments so that all children with cancer can survive and thrive.”
Dr Udani Reets, CEO of Children’s Cancer CoLab

The ongoing burden of childhood cancer

Childhood cancer has a devastating impact on patients and their families. Repeated hospital stays, invasive treatments, and an uncertain prognosis can cause chronic stress for young cancer patients and their families. Families in regional or rural Australia often face the added stress of leaving their homes to relocate closer to a treatment centre.

Childhood cancer also creates both immediate and long-term financial burdens. In the short term, parents may need to reduce work hours or quit jobs to care for their sick child. In the long term, survivors may face ongoing healthcare costs, worse educational outcomes and limited employment potential. For individuals who survived childhood cancer, 25 years after treatment nearly 40% have either died, are unemployed, or exited the workforce due to the long-term effects of their childhood cancer. Chronic health conditions with varying onset and severity were significantly associated with employment transitions.

Better treatments are urgently needed

While over 80% of children survive cancer, some cancer types have much lower survival rates. Cancers, such as sarcoma, neuroblastoma, and brain cancer often do not respond to current treatments and have had limited survival improvements despite ongoing research efforts.

Many of the drugs and therapies used to treat childhood cancer were originally developed for adults and not designed for children's developing bodies. There is an urgent need for more effective and safer cancer treatments specifically designed for children.

In the past 40 years, only 12 drugs have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for childhood cancer, while over 500 drugs were approved for adults. This inequity is a driving force behind our Next-Generation Therapies and Safer Therapies Impact Programs.

Survival is not enough - we want children with cancer to thrive

Young cancer survivors often face long-term health issues from treatments like chemotherapy and radiotherapy. More than 95% of survivors will have a significant health problem related to their childhood cancer diagnosis or its treatment by age 45. Lifelong side-effects can include developmental disorders, vision and hearing problems, infertility, mental health challenges, and additional cancers. They may also struggle with psychosocial effects, such as fear of cancer returning. To thrive after cancer, Survivorship and Living Well must be considered as part of a young patient's holistic treatment.

Accelerating innovation for hard-to-treat cancers

Most childhood cancers have no known cause. More research is urgently needed to understand why children develop cancer so that improved therapies can be developed. Advanced therapies are essential for children who do not respond to current treatments—another reason why better access to clinical trials is vital for young cancer patients.

By integrating biological and clinical data, our Innovation Accelerators Impact Program has the potential to amplify research ‘power’ through collective datasets, helping to accelerate discoveries in understudied paediatric cancers. With a strong emphasis on fostering collaboration and streamlining access, clinicians can also use these tools to predict therapy effectiveness and screen for other treatment options.

Collaborating to improve childhood cancer outcomes

We are striving for a future where all children with cancer survive and thrive. To achieve our vision, we are uniting many of the brightest minds in childhood cancer to fast-track new and safer treatments with fewer side-effects. Our Impact Programs have been designed to facilitate collaborative research and innovation to accelerate discoveries into the clinic to benefit young cancer patients in Australia and globally.

Healthcare professionals and scientists are the cornerstones of progress in childhood cancer research and care. Our Future Leaders program cultivates the next generation of experts, ensuring a robust pipeline of talent to spearhead future breakthroughs and enhancements in paediatric oncology.

Sources
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/cancer/cancer-data-in-australia/contents/about
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cancer-in-children
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9883415/
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2818556
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9559689/
https://www.cancer.org.au/cancer-information/types-of-cancer/childhood-cancers
https://www.cancer.org.au/cancer-information/types-of-cancer/childhood-cancers/childhood-cancer-statistics-in-australia
https://www.canceraustralia.gov.au/cancer-types/childrens-cancer/about-childrens-cancer/statistics-childrens-cancer
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2809804
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