Childhood Cancer Information
As part of awareness into Childhood Cancer, The Gavin Glynn Foundation compiled some information we would like to share.
*Number of cancers diagnosed in children aged 0-16 years at diagnosis supplied by NCRI Jan 2017 (National Cancer Registry Ireland).
Although we have identified a number of lifestyle changes that can help to prevent many adult cancers developing cancer, we don’t know how to prevent or what causes most childhood cancers.
We do know some factors that increase risk in adult cases, but most children with cancer don’t have any of these risk factors.
Even though cancer is not common in children, it is the most common cause of death from illness in children between the ages of 1 to 16 year olds.
Percentages of children dying from various cancers have gone down, the proportion of childhood deaths from cancer overall has gone up.
Each year in Europe, 6,000 young people die from cancer, and two-thirds of those who survive suffer from treatment-related side effects.
Despite improving survival rates, Cancer is still the Number 1 cause of death by disease in children aged one year and over in Europe.
In addition to the side effects of treatment, five years after diagnosis these survivors still have a risk of death that is higher than that of the general population.
Breakdown by cancer type and year of diagnosis
| Number of cancers diagnosed in children aged 0-16 years at diagnosis | |||||||||
| Breakdown by cancer type and year of diagnosis, separately for girls and boys | |||||||||
| FEMALES | MALES | TOTAL | |||||||
| ICCC code and cancer description | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 |
| I leukaemias | 26 | 26 | 35 | 27 | 25 | 27 | 53 | 51 | 62 |
| II lymphomas | 11 | 10 | 15 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 22 | 24 | 32 |
| III brain & central nervous system | 24 | 25 | 35 | 28 | 22 | 29 | 52 | 47 | 64 |
| IV neuroblastomas & peripheral nervous system tumours | 4 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 13 | 9 |
| V retinoblastoma | 6 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 4 | 3 |
| VI renal tumours | 4 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 14 | 13 |
| VII hepatic tumours | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| VIII malignant bone tumours | 5 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 9 | 7 |
| IX soft tissue & sarcomas | 5 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 5 | 11 | 13 | 8 |
| X gonadal & germ cell tumours | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 6 |
| XI other specified epithelial tumours & melanomas | 6 | 13 | 7 | 9 | 5 | 6 | 15 | 18 | 13 |
| XII other & unspecified | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| other cancers outside of the ICCC classification system (all non malignant cancers) | 9 | 12 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 17 | 17 | 12 |
| Total registered cancers | 105 | 114 | 126 | 107 | 105 | 107 | 212 | 219 | 233 |
| Breakdown by tumour stage for each cancer type and year of diagnosis | |||||||||
| 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | |||||||
| I leukaemias (stage not applicable) | 53 | 51 | 62 | ||||||
| II lymphomas | |||||||||
| Stage I | 1 | 4 | 4 | ||||||
| Stage II | 8 | 6 | 5 | ||||||
| Stage III | 4 | 4 | 7 | ||||||
| Stage IV | 5 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| unstaged/stage not applicable | 4 | 9 | 15 | ||||||
| III brain & central nervous system (stage not applicable) | 52 | 47 | 64 | ||||||
| IV neuroblastomas & peripheral nervous system tumours (stage not applicable) | 8 | 13 | 9 | ||||||
| V retinoblastoma | |||||||||
| Stage I | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Stage II | 2 | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| Stage III | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Stage IV | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| unstaged/stage not applicable | 5 | 3 | 3 | ||||||
| VI renal tumours | |||||||||
| Stage I | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Stage II | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Stage III | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Stage IV | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| unstaged/stage not applicable | 9 | 13 | 13 | ||||||
| VII hepatic tumours | |||||||||
| Stage I | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Stage II | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Stage III | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| Stage IV | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| unstaged/stage not applicable | 3 | 1 | 3 | ||||||
| VIII malignant bone tumours | |||||||||
| Stage I | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Stage II | 2 | 3 | 0 | ||||||
| Stage III | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Stage IV | 2 | 3 | 0 | ||||||
| unstaged/stage not applicable | 4 | 3 | 7 | ||||||
| IX soft tissue & sarcomas | |||||||||
| Stage I | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Stage II | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Stage III | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Stage IV | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| unstaged/stage not applicable | 9 | 13 | 8 | ||||||
| X gonadal & germ cell tumours | |||||||||
| Stage I | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| Stage II | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Stage III | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Stage IV | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| >unstaged/stage not applicable | 4 | 3 | 6 | ||||||
| XI other specified epithelial tumours & melanomas | |||||||||
| Stage I | 4 | 4 | 0 | ||||||
| Stage II | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| Stage III | 1 | 3 | 0 | ||||||
| Stage IV | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| unstaged/stage not applicable | 7 | 10 | 13 | ||||||
| XII other & unspecified (stage not applicable) | 3 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
| outside of ICCC classification system (all non-malignant) | 17 | 17 | 12 | ||||||
| Numbers of patients undergoing tumour-directed surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy | |||||||||
| 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | |||||||
| total cases | 212 | 219 | 233 | ||||||
| had surgery | 108 | 99 | 88 | ||||||
| had chemotherapy | 131 | 120 | 135 | ||||||
| had radiotherapy | 38 | 26 | 21 | ||||||
| Number of deaths from cancer in children (aged 0-14) in Ireland per year (data from the Central Statistics Office) | |||||||||
| NB: data provided by 5 year age band only so figures here exclude patients aged 15 or 16 (which are included in the incidence data above) | |||||||||
| > | |||||||||
| 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | |||||||
| Female | 13 | 13 | 8 | ||||||
| Male | 19 | 14 | 10 | ||||||