Hopes over leukaemia survival rates

Leukaemia cure rates for children have increased over the years

Three in four children diagnosed with leukaemia are going to be cured of their disease, experts believe.

Leukaemia cure rates for children have increased from 25% in the early 1970s to 68% in the early 1990s, according to latest estimates. Scientists expect this figure to have risen to 73% for children diagnosed more recently.

Previously the success of leukaemia treatment was judged by the number of patients surviving five years. Now a "cure" is defined as the point at which life expectancy returns to normal.

Researchers based their leukaemia cure rate prediction on data from the National Registry of Childhood Tumours, which holds information on almost all children under the age of 15 diagnosed with cancer in the UK.

Dr Anjali Shah, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who led the study, said: "It's great that children diagnosed with leukaemia can be told that the numbers cured of this terrible disease are increasing.

"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."

Professor Michael Coleman, who leads the Cancer Research UK Cancer Survival Group at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "Our study suggests that the development of new treatments for leukaemia, combined with clinical trials to refine treatment strategies, has been effective in curing more children with leukaemia.

"But alongside the more intensive treatments for leukaemia that increase the chance of cure, we need to reduce the risk of longer-term adverse effects that children may suffer in later life, which can include recurrence of cancer in other parts of the body."

Edward Copisarow, chief executive of CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA, the charity which funded the study, said: "This is the first time that anyone has estimated childhood leukaemia cure trends over time.

Estimating cure and determining for how long patients should be monitored is a valuable step beyond the arbitrary success measures of survival five or 10 years after diagnosis, because it provides a better sense of the long-term success we are having in fighting this disease."