Survival rates for teenagers and young adults with cancer vary hugely, depending on the type of disease they have, a study revealed today.
Although the one-year survival rate is more than 90 per cent, patients with leukaemia and soft tissue sarcoma have the highest proportion of deaths, according to Public Health England.
The report by Public Health England’s National Cancer Intelligence Network looked at deaths within a year of diagnosis for all patients diagnosed with cancer between the ages of 15 to 24 years in 2005-2009 in England.
Researchers from the PHE NCIN Teenage and Young Adults Cancer Intelligence Unit in Manchester found that the proportion of patients who died within a year of being diagnosed with cancer varies from 23 per cent for those with acute myeloid leukaemia to 0.5 per cent for Hodgkin lymphoma.
Tony Moran, intelligence lead at the Manchester Teenage and Young Adults Cancer Intelligence Unit said: “Approximately 116 teenagers and young adults die in England each year in the twelve months following a diagnosis of cancer.
"Though the deaths of many young patients are inevitable, preventing even a proportion of these deaths at such an early age would make a considerable contribution to decreasing the number of years of life lost due to premature mortality.”
Mike Stevens, professor of Paediatric Oncology at the University of Bristol and Chair of the NCIN Children, Teenage and Young Adults Clinical Reference Group, said: “Several influences are likely to be involved in explaining these findings. In some cancers, such as acute myeloid leukaemia, early deaths may be due to patients not responding to, or from complications of, the intensive treatment required.
“In other cancers, such as acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, there is now data to suggest that teenagers and young adults should be treated in the same way as children rather than with strategies previously used for this disease in adults; changes now being introduced to the treatment of teenagers and young adults with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia are likely to confirm the benefit of this approach.”
Sarah Woolnough, Cancer Research UK’s executive director, said: “Any diagnosis of cancer in children or teenagers is devastating. And high numbers surviving the disease for just a year isn’t a cause for celebration, though it does demonstrate that we’re making progress. Like any parent of a child with cancer we desperately want to find a cure.
"While small steps are being made in the right direction, we know there’s still so much to be done so that no parent has to go through the anguish of losing a child.”
Gill Lovitt, teenage and young people’s adviser at Macmillan Cancer Support, added: “It is startling that there is so much variation in teenage survival rates. This research shows just how vital it is that teenagers and young people with cancer are treated with the appropriate treatment and care for their specific age.
"This is particularly important after treatment when teenagers become adults but still need follow-up care designed to suit their changing needs.”
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