According to statistics from the U.S., the number of deaths among young people with cancer is going down. The National Centre for Health Statistics is part of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In 2001, there were 2,226 deaths from cancer among people younger than 20. This is 2.75 deaths per 100,000 people nationwide.
The death rate dropped to 2.10 deaths per 100,000 people in 2021, a 24% drop over the previous twenty years.
The CDC said that the drop was most noticeable among younger age groups in the last ten years.
Between 2011 and 2021, the death rate for kids ages 4 and under went down by 16%.
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The CDC said that the drop was most noticeable among younger age groups in the last ten years.
Between 2011 and 2021, the death rate for kids ages 4 and under went down by 16%.
In the same time period, the death rate dropped 21% for kids ages 5 to 9.
Young women’s cancer death rates fell 30% more than young men’s over the course of 20 years, compared to 19% for men.
In the year between 2020 and 2021, the death rate for young women with cancer dropped by 9%, but it rose by 8% for young men with cancer in the same year.
The study also showed that the death rates from cancer are different for people of different races and ethnicities.
In 2021, the death rate from cancer was 16% lower for White kids and teens than for Black and Hispanic kids and teens.
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The CDC says that between 2001 and 2021, the number of cancer deaths in children and teens who were White dropped 27%. The number of deaths among Black youth dropped 11%, and the number of deaths among young Hispanic patients dropped 19%.
Brain cancer killed 0.59 out of every 100,000 kids and teens who got it in 2021, making it the most deadly type of cancer for them.
In 2001, leukaemia was the top cause of death from cancer in young people. However, the death rate from blood cancer has gone down a lot since then, dropping 47% as of 2021.
Dr. Marc Siegel, a clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Centre and a medical contributor for Fox News, said that the drop in death rates was probably caused by a number of things working together.
“These include earlier and better screening,” he told Fox News Digital.
“There are also better treatments for all kinds of cancer, with the inclusion of less invasive surgical approaches like laparoscope and robotics, more advanced chemotherapy regimens, and the institution of immunotherapies over the past decade,” Siegel said.
Even though the death rate dropped sharply (24% percent) from 2001 to 2021, Siegel pointed out that there was a small rise between 2019 and 2020.
“I think the slight recent uptick was due to the delay in screenings and treatment in late 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic,” he said.
Overall, cases of children cancer make up a very small part of all cases.
About 15,000 kids and teens are identified with cancer every year in the U.S., compared to 1.6 million people of all ages.