Childhood and Adolescent Blood Cancer Facts and Statistics

Childhood and Adolescent Blood Cancers

• An estimated 54,025 children and adolescents younger than 20 years in the US are living with or in remission from leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) or myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) (see Table 2).  
• Leukemia is the most common cancer diagnosed in children and adolescents younger than 20 years and accounts for 25.1 percent of all cancer cases in this age-group.  
• From 2013 to 2017, the most recent 5 years for which data are available, leukemia and lymphoma accounted for 39.0 percent of all cancer types in children and adolescents younger than 20 years.  
• The most common types of cancer in children and adolescents younger than 20 years are leukemia (25.1 percent), cancers of the brain and other nervous tissue (17.1 percent), NHL (7.5 percent), HL (6.4 percent), and soft tissue (5.9 percent).  
• The age-adjusted incidence rate of leukemia and lymphoma in children and adolescents younger than 20 years is 7.3 per 100,000 (leukemia, 4.7 and lymphoma, 2.6).  
• Leukemia is the second leading cause of cancer deaths (after cancers of the brain and other nervous tissue) among children and adolescents younger than 20 years. This accounts for 26.1 percent of all cancer-related deaths among this age-group.  
• From 2013-2017, 4.7 percent of all leukemia and lymphoma cases were diagnosed in children and adolescents younger than 20 years.  
• From 2013-2017, 3.4 percent of all blood cancers (leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, MDS and MPNs*) were diagnosed in children and adolescents younger than 20 years. 

*Myeloma, MDS and MPNs are not commonly diagnosed in children and adolescents younger than 20 years.

Source:

• Facts 2020-2021. Facts 2020-2021 provides updates from the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Facts & Figures 2021 (published online in 2021, https://www.cancer.org/research/cancer-facts-statistics. html) for estimated numbers of new blood cancer cases and estimated numbers of deaths due to blood cancers. The incidence rates, prevalence and mortality data in Facts 2020-2021 reflect the statistics from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program, Cancer Statistics Review (CSR) 1975-2017 (published online in April 2020,  www.seer.cancer.gov). National incidence counts are generated from the United States Cancer Statistics (USCS) Public Use Database for 2001-2017 (www.cdc.gov/cancer/uscs/public-use/). Incidence rates by state are provided by the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR), Cancer in North America: 2013-2017 (published online in May 2020, www.naaccr.org).