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More young people are beating childhood cancers


Doug Hendrie


18/04/2018 2:47:32 PM

Young Australians diagnosed with cancer have a better chance than ever of beating the disease, according to a new report.

The AIHW report found Australian adolescents’ five-year survival rates across all cancers to be 89% as of 2014.
The AIHW report found Australian adolescents’ five-year survival rates across all cancers to be 89% as of 2014.

Five-year survival rates across all cancers are 89% as of 2014, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s (AIHW) ‘Cancer in adolescents and young adults in Australia’ report. That is up from 80% in 1985–89.
 
However, the rate of cancer among youth is on the rise, from 283 to 308 cases per million between 1985–89 and 2010–14.
 
Melanoma was the most common cancer, and brain cancer was the most lethal, with 18% of all deaths attributed.
 
Incidence rates for melanoma fell from 96 new cases per million to 44 cases between 1985–89 and 2010–14, while brain cancer fell from 7.6 deaths per million to 5.8 deaths.  
 
Between 2010–14, around 4800 new cases of cancer were diagnosed in adolescents and young adults aged 15–24. In the 2011–15 period, 499 young people died from the disease – just under 9% of all deaths of youth. Survivors’ risk of developing cancer again increased by 1.9 times.
 
Around 3% of all survivors developed cancer again over the period 1982–2014. These second cancers were most likely to be Hodgkin lymphoma, followed by melanoma, gonadal germ cell cancer, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.



AIHW cancer-in-adolescents youth-cancer


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