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Saloni
@scientificdiscovery.dev

I wrote a new piece on how much progress has been made in treating childhood leukemia. The answer is: quite a lot! Before the 1970s, fewer than 10% of children diagnosed survived 5 years after diagnosis. Now most are cured and around 85% survive that long. ourworldindata.org/childhood-le...

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Repair Shop
@clockworkshaun.bsky.social

Thank you for publishing this. A friend at school died at 13 of Leukemia and I think of him often. A life cut short by something that might have been curable 45 years later. My frustration at those who would drag us backwards increases. RIP Alex Stammers x

Saloni
@scientificdiscovery.dev

In the chart below, you can see the reduction in cancer death rates in the United States among children of different ages. The decline has been particularly large for leukemia, with a 14-fold drop. We’ve also made much progress on other, less common childhood cancers.

Saloni
@scientificdiscovery.dev

There's some research on it here, but basically it's also improved, and you can also see that reflected in the 10-year survival rates on the chart above doi.org/10.1001/jama... doi.org/10.1182/bloo...

doi.orgLife Expectancy of Adult Survivors of Childhood Cancer Over 3 DecadesThis decision analytical model–based study uses data from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study to project long-term survival and assess whether life expectancy will improve among adult survivors of chi...