Avoidable Causes of Childhood Cancer

The Increasing Incidence but Decreasing Mortality Rates Of Major Childhod Cancers, 1975-2009* SITE % Increase Incidence % Decrease Mortality** Overall 35 53 Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia 58 70 Bone & Joint 57 33 Brain & Nervous System 52 33 Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma 40 75 Leukemia 33 65 Kidney (Wilms Tumor) 20 0 * National Cancer Institute, Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results, 2011. ** The striking decrease in mortality reflects the National Cancer Institutes success in developing pediatric clinical trial cooperative groups in 2000. (The Cancer Letter, June 8, 2012). Association with Congenital Defects Several childhood cancers occur so early in life that they must have originated during fetal life, or shortly thereafter.* These include acute lymphocytic leukemia, neuroblastoma,**and kidney and liver cancers. Cancer in the mother, particularly melanoma, can spread to the infant. * MILLER, R.W. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 40; 1079-1085, 1968. ** The author is a survivor of this cancer