Leukemia
This chart shows the incredbile progress that has been made against childhood leukemia, specifically acute lymphoblastic leukemia. So if your child is diagnosed with ALL today, she probably has a greater than 90% chance of cure. 40 years ago the chance was more like 10%.
Chart is from last week's NEJM. ALL is the success story in cancer. Progress in other cancers has obviously been less impressive. Still, the success rate in childhood ALL is so great that much current research focuses on identifying "low risk" patients who will be cured with less-intensive regimens that have fewer adverse effects.
posted by Dr. Andy @ 7:39 PM
4 Comments:
Yes, the cure rate for ALL is wonderful. However children get other kinds of cancer. I wanted to strangle well meaning stranger who cheered us on when my daughter was diagnosed with a particular nasty form of leukemia (Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia) with comments like "oh they can cure that now". Such hopeful faces, how could I tell them that her chances were actually quite dismal and the doctors had all but told us to go home and plan her funeral.
I think it is a miracle that ALL has come so far so fast. My child has AML; relapsed, stem cell transplant, relapse. Now we are in hospice care. For those cancers that are on the margins, it is still a long row to hoe.
Having just done my first month on heme/onc as an intern, I would add that while, yes, the cure rate for ALL has improved drastically, the treatments are not benign. Round after round of chemo, lumbar punctures for intrathecal chemo, nasty drug side effects, hair loss, time out of school, the stigma of being sick and, most importantly, the complete loss of innocence...these "morbidities" are not reflected in the sunny statistics of the 5 and 10 yr survival curves.
I would also agree with your other commenters that there are many other types of childhood cancers that don't have such cheery survival rates. Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma springs to mind...
We too have been met with the cheery faces of well-meaning people who say "that's easily curable now." Easily? My two-year-old son is now is delayed intensification. He can't talk or eat due to the sores throughout his mouth and asophogus. This is only one of the many side effects. We feel confident he will be cured, but it is far from "easy."
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