To help better understand and fight childhood cancer, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has joined the recently formed World Health Organization (WHO) Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer.
The Global Initiative seeks to reduce inequalities in access to diagnosis and in quality of treatment, and thus improve treatment outcomes for all children, especially those living in countries with limited resources.
IARC estimates that each year about 2,15,000 children younger than 15 years and about 85 000 children aged 15–19 years are diagnosed with cancer. In low-resource settings, childhood cancer survival rates are only about one quarter those in high-resource settings.
High-quality data on childhood cancer incidence and survival are critical to better understand and combat the disease. However, many low-income countries lack high-quality cancer registries, and thus data describing the burden of childhood cancer are scarce.(UNI)
