Brain Cancer, Now The Leading Cancer Killer In Children

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released a statement on Friday saying that brain cancer is now the most fatal childhood cancer in the United States. This type of cancer has surpassed leukemia, which used to be the leading cause of mortality in children and now already has a lot of advance treatment that allows doctors to cure a wide range of blood-related cancer.

NBC News reported that the new federal data shows that brain cancer is now the leading cause of death in children compared to any other cancer type. However, the new stat also said that brain tumors are becoming less common in children, and leukemia, which was previously known as the number 1 child cancer killer, is now less fatal than before. In fact, the National Center for Health Statistics found that the total death rate from cancer dropped by 20 percent among children and teens between 1999 and 2014.

In 1999, there are about 1 in 3 children who died of leukemia and brain cancer caused the death of at least 1 in 4 children. However, in 2014, the numbers had switched. According to Reuters, Sally Curtin, an author of the report, said in a telephone interview: "Forms of leukemia that generations ago were almost universally fatal are now almost universally curable."

The report also said that other sites of cancer most children suffer from included the bone and articular cartilage, thyroid and other endocrine glands and mesothelial and soft tissue. Together with brain cancer and leukemia, all these totaled to 81.6 percent of all childhood cancer deaths in 2014. "The declines were broad, across all the age groups, males and females, for both white and black children," Curtin said. "That in and of itself is noteworthy because so many health outcomes have disparities."

She has also observed that brain cancer deaths remained stable while deaths related to leukemia dropped. In 2014, there were 445 children who died from pediatric leukemia, down from 645 in 1999. However, the CDC found that deaths related to childhood brain cancer increased slightly from 516 in 1999 to 534 in 2014. "For pediatric brain tumors in particular, we have not made significant headway at all," said Katherine Warren, head of pediatric neuro-oncology at the National Cancer Institute, reported The Guardian.

Warren also said that brain cancer in children is more difficult to treat partly because the blood-brain barrier protects the central nervous system from toxins making it more difficult for chemotherapy to administer. "With leukemia, you are giving the therapy directly into the blood and hence to the bone marrow which is exactly where the cancer is," she said, calling for more research into childhood brain cancers. She also added saying, "We have learned over the past decade or so that childhood tumors are significantly different from adult tumors."