US Pharm. 2008:3(2):HS-34.

Despite a 0.6% increase in pediatric malignancies, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that fewer children are dying from cancers. In a report by Loria Pollack, MD, and colleagues that was published in Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report, the researchers stated that the lower pediatric mortality rate of cancer in the U.S. "likely reflects advances in cancer treatment in this population."

The cancer most commonly diagnosed in children is leukemia (25.5%). Within this group, acute lymphocytic leukemia accounts for approximately 73% of all leukemia cases diagnosed. Leukemia also had the most dramatic decline in mortality. Brain and central nervous system cancers constituted 25% of all childhood cancers. The report uncovered that boys had a higher death rate than girls, and that adolescents had a higher death rate than younger children. Hispanic children had a higher mortality rate than non-Hispanics, and Caucasian and black children had higher death rates than Asians/Pacific Islanders or American Indians/Alaskan Natives.

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