Majority of youngsters struck with leukaemia will survive

Published on Tuesday 1 July 2008 22:05

ALMOST three-quarters of children diagnosed with leukaemia will be cured of the disease, research suggested yesterday.

Better drugs and new treatment strategies mean that 73 per cent of youngsters recently diagnosed with the cancer in the UK will be cured, scientists said.

This compares to just 25 per cent diagnosed in the early 1970s.

The results of the study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, give new hope to parents who find themselves faced with the nightmare of having a child diagnosed with leukaemia.

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine examined how survival rates have changed in recent decades.

Five-year survival rates, which have traditionally been used to judge success, show that survival increased from 33 per cent to 79 per cent between 1971 and 2000.

In the latest study, the researchers recalculated the figures to define a "cure" as the point where the life expectancy of children diagnosed with leukaemia returned to normal for their age and sex.

Using this measure, they predicted that the cure rate would soon rise to 73 per cent, compared to 68 per cent in the 1990s.

"It's great that children diagnosed with leukaemia can be told that the numbers cured of this terrible disease are increasing," researcher Dr Anjali Shah said.

"We think the substantial increase in survival and 'cure' is largely due to improvements in treatment and care, which have come about thanks to international research collaboration and well-organised, multi-disciplinary trials – many of which have been led by researchers in Britain."