Global popula on-based childhood cancer survival in the twentyfirst century: a scoping review

Charles Stiller^*

• NHS England, London, England, United Kingdom

The development of effective treatment for many childhood cancers has led to dramatic increases in survival rates at the population level, at least in affluent industrialised countries. Studies of survival in numerous populations have been published, but population-based survival estimates that are essential for monitoring and planning are still lacking in many countries. There is no comprehensive account of the type and extent of available information on this topic. A scoping review of population-based studies of childhood cancer in the 21st century was carried out with the aim of repairing this omission. Searches of two electronic databases and the author’s bibliographic files produced 5,490 references, of which 303 reported population-based studies containing at least one estimate of five-year survival for children with cancer diagnosed during a period whose central year was 2001 or later. Overall, 75% of high-income countries with a child population ≥ 50,000 were represented in these studies, compared with 47% of upper middle income countries, 16% of lower middle income countries and 8% of low income countries. Among countries that were represented in population-based studies, 29% of high income countries were only represented in studies involving multiple countries compared with 75% of those in lower income categories. Similar contrasts were found between countries with very high Human Development Index and those in lower categories of Human Development Index. Wider availability of robust information on survival at population level will be essential for monitoring progress towards the goal set by the World Health Organization’s Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer of 60% survival globally for children and adolescents with cancer by the year 2030. Increasing the coverage and quality of cancer registration and death notification in as many lower-resource countries as possible would in turn increase the volume and geographic spread of the data from which survival rates can be estimated for those countries. International collaborations whose results are underpinned by uniform procedures for data validation and analysis will continue to play a vital part in enabling comparison of childhood cancer survival between populations.