About Childhood Cancer

Childhood cancer, although rare, is one of the leading causes of death by disease in children and adolescents. The most common childhood cancers are leukemias, lymphomas, and solid tumours such as brain cancers, sarcomas and neuroblastoma.  

The WHO estimates that globally nearly 400,000 children (aged 0-19) develop cancer each year, the vast majority of whom live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).  

While survival rates for childhood cancer in high-income countries (HICs) have improved considerably (currently around 80%), delayed or inaccurate diagnoses, lack of access to affordable treatments and care results in rates drop significantly in LMICs to less than 30%. There is an urgent need to improve both surveillance of childhood cancer, and access to care, including essential therapies and technologies in LMICs.  

Childhood cancer treatment is dependent on the type of cancer, and treatments can include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, or a combination thereof. Although improved treatments for hematopoietic cancers such as non-Hodgkin lymphomas and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) resulted in a marked decreased in mortality rates over the last three decades, some solid tumor subtypes such as brain tumors and sarcomas remain challenging to treat.  

This collection welcomes papers on the following topics (though not limited to): incidence, survival, and mortality; molecular oncogenic mechanisms; translational research; diagnosis; environmental exposures in utero, environmental carcinogens; clinical trials; treatments and treatment strategy; survivorship; palliative care. 

This Collection is now closed for submissions.