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Recent Decline in Cancer Mortality for Children, Teens

Twenty percent decrease in cancer death rate among children and adolescents from 1999 to 2014

FRIDAY, Sept. 16, 2016 (HealthDay News) — There was a decrease in cancer mortality from 1999 to 2014 for children and adolescents aged 1 to 19 years, according to a September data brief published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

Sally C. Curtin, from the NCHS in Hyattsville, Md., and colleagues examined trends in cancer death among children and adolescents aged 1 to 19 years in the United States using data from the National Vital Statistics System. Cancer death rates were presented for 1999 to 2014.

The researchers observed a 20 percent decrease in the cancer death rate among children and adolescents, from 2.85 to 2.28 per 100,000 population during 1999 to 2014. In 2014, the cancer death rate for males aged 1 to 19 years was 30 percent higher than for females. For both white and black persons aged 1 to 19 years, and for all five-year age groups, there were decreases in cancer death rates during 1999 to 2014. Brain cancer replaced leukemia as the most common cancer causing death among children and adolescents during 1999 to 2014; brain cancer accounted for three of 10 cancer deaths during the study period.

“Cancer mortality among children and adolescents aged 1 to 19 years continued to decline during 1999 to 2014, building upon progress of the previous three decades,” the authors write.

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