Trends in 5- and 10-year survival after diagnosis with childhood hematologic malignancies in the United States, 1990-2004.
BACKGROUND
Advances in the treatment of childhood hematologic malignancies have led to improvements in survival for several of these conditions during the past few decades, but most population-based survival data available to date refer only to patients diagnosed up to the mid-1990s.


METHODS
We used period analysis to assess trends in 5- and 10-year survival in US patients younger than 15 years of age at diagnosis with four hematologic malignancies--acute lymphoblastic leukemia, acute non-lymphoblastic leukemia, Hodgkin lymphoma, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma--over three recent 5-year intervals, 1990-1994, 1995-1999, and 2000-2004, using data on a total of 6957 patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. Expected survival for 2005-2009 was estimated by modeling from trends in the preceding intervals.


RESULTS
Major improvements in 5- and 10-year relative survival between 1990-1994 and 2000-2004 were seen for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (from 80.2% to 87.5% and from 73.4% to 83.8%, respectively), acute non-lymphoblastic leukemia (from 41.9% to 59.9% and from 38.7% to 59.1%, respectively), and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (from 76.6% to 87.7% and from 73.0% to 86.9%, respectively). For those diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, 5- and 10-year survival rates for the 1990-1994 period were 96.1% and 94.4%, respectively, and these rates did not change substantially in the later time periods. Projected 10-year survival rates for children diagnosed in the 2005-2009 period were 88.0% for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, 63.9% for acute non-lymphoblastic leukemia, 90.6% for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and 94.3% for Hodgkin lymphoma.


CONCLUSIONS
Application of period analysis to a population-based study of childhood hematologic malignancies reveals ongoing increases in survival for three of the four common childhood hematologic malignancies.
Pulte
Dianne
D
Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
Gondos
Adam
A
Brenner
Hermann
H
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D019337:Hematologic Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000401:mortality; D006801:Humans; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000401:mortality; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000401:mortality; D012042:Registries; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018426:SEER Program; D015996:Survival Rate; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology