Childhood cancer statistics - mortality

Around 260 children aged under 15 years die from cancer each year in the UK (Table 2.1).1-3 This equates to 24 deaths per million children.

Table 2.1: All Childhood Cancers**, Average Number of Deaths per Year, Crude and World Age-Standardised (W-AS) Mortality Rates per Million Population, Children (0-14), UK, 2007-2009

*95% LCL and 95% UCL are the 95% lower and upper confidence limits around the W-AS Rate
**All childhood cancers includes all malignant tumours (ICD-10 codes: C00-C97) and all non-malignant brain and CNS tumours (ICD-10 codes: D32-D33, D35.2-D35.4, D42-D43 and D44.3-D44.5). 
Note: These rates are per million population and deaths for boys and girls may not add up to the total for children due to rounding.

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section updated 06/11/11

Cancer is the most common cause of death in children aged 1–14 years overall, accounting for just under a fifth (18%) of all deaths in this age group (Table 2.2). The percentage of deaths from cancer in boys is matched by the percentage of deaths due to accidents (19% each). Accidents cause relatively fewer deaths in girls (13%), with cancer accounting for the greater proportion (17%).

As with incidence, childhood cancer mortality is higher in boys than girls (ratio of around 1.4 : 1.0). The highest overall cancer mortality rates occur in children aged 1-4, and the lowest rates occur in infants (under one-year-olds).

Deaths are presented for 1-14 years only because of the large numbers of deaths that occur in infants (for example, during childbirth or related to immaturity conditions or congenital anomalies). In 2007-09 there was an average of 3,721 deaths per year in infants under one-years old, 34 (0.3%) of which were due to invasive cancers (C00-C97).

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Read more about mortality rates in adults.

Section updated 2010

Though tumours of the brain and central nervous system (CNS) rank second in incidence, they are the most common cause of deaths from cancer in childhood, accounting for around a third (32%) of all cancer deaths in children (Figure 2.1).4

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Read more about brain and CNS tumours in adults

Leukaemias account for a slightly lower proportion of cancer deaths in children (30%) and tumours of the SNS account for around a tenth (11%).

Read more about leukaemia in adults.

The World age-standardised mortality rates for childhood cancer in Great Britain have fallen by more than a half (57%) since the late 1960s, from 73 deaths per million children in 1966-1970 to 32 per million in 2001-2005.4 This downward trend is true for all diagnostic groups, but to varying amounts.

Dramatic improvements in the treatment of leukaemias in the 1970s and 1980s (see Diagnosis and treatment section) led to brain and CNS tumours overtaking leukaemias as the most common cause of cancer deaths in children in the early 1990s.4