U.S. childhood cancer death rate declines sharply

U.S. childhood cancer death rate declines sharply
Melissa Gilbert visits with a 10-year-old cancer sufferer at Akron Children's Hospital in Akron, Ohio in this October 14, 2007 photo. The cancer death rate for children in the United States has declined sharply -- down 20 percent from 1990 to 2004 -- thanks to better treatment of leukemia and other cancers, health officials said on Thursday. (Akron Children's Hospital/Handout/Files/Reuters)WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The cancer death rate for childrenin the United States has declined sharply -- down 20 percentfrom 1990 to 2004 -- thanks to better treatment of leukemia andother cancers, health officials said on Thursday.
Cancer stands as the leading disease-related cause of deathfor U.S. children, the Centers for Disease Control andPrevention said in a report. Better treatments are improvingsurvival rates, the CDC said.
The cancer death rate for U.S. children was 34.2 permillion for children up to age 19 in 1990, but fell to 27.3 permillion in 2004, the CDC said. This death rate has declined 1.7percent per year during this period, according to the CDC.
"It's not that we're having less cancer diagnosed. Theincidence rates, the new-case rates are the same. It's justthat we're getting better survival," the CDC's Dr. Lori Pollacksaid in a telephone interview.
There were 2,223 childhood cancer deaths in 2004, comparedto 2,457 in 1990, the CDC said. The only greater causes ofdeath for U.S. children were accidents, homicide and suicide.
The blood and bone marrow cancers known as leukemia causedabout 26 percent of the 2004 cancer deaths, with brain andother nervous system tumors causing another 25 percent. Deathrates from leukemia dropped more sharply than other cancers, by3 percent per year from 1990 to 2004, the CDC said.
Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the AmericanCancer Society, said better drugs and improvements in how drugsare used are helping improve leukemia survival, along witheffective use of bone marrow transplants.
"We've made tremendous advances against pediatric cancer.We'd like to see greater advances. Kids are still dying fromit," Brawley said in a telephone interview.
U.S. Hispanics have not experienced as large a decline inchildhood cancer death rates as other groups, according to theCDC report. Their cancer death rates have declined by only 1percent per year during the 15 years studied.
"Studies have documented that Hispanics lack sufficientaccess to health-care services because of inadequate healthinsurance coverage, lack of health insurance, poor geographicaccess to health-care providers, lack of transportation to andfrom providers, and cultural and linguistic barriers, whichmight contribute to this disparity," according to the report.
There were also regional differences, with cancer deathrates falling the least in the West and the most in theMidwest, the CDC said. In addition, boys had significantlyhigher death rates than girls, the CDC said.
(Editing by Julie Steenhuysen and Eric Beech)