title: Childhood cancer survival in France, 2000-2008.
abstract: This paper reports the latest survival data for French childhood cancer patients at the national level. Data from the two French National Registries of Childhood Cancer (Haematopoietic Malignancies and Solid Tumours) were used to describe survival outcomes for 15,479 children diagnosed with cancer between 2000 and 2008 in mainland France. The overall survival was 91.7% at 1 year, 86.9% at 2 years and 81.6% at 5 years. Relative survival did not differ from overall survival even for infants. Survival was lower among infants for lymphoblastic leukaemia and astrocytoma, but higher for neuroblastoma. For all cancers considered together, 5-year survival increased from 79.5% in the first (2000-2002) diagnostic period to 83.2% in the last (2006-2008) period. The improvement was significant for leukaemia, both myeloid and lymphoid, central nervous system tumours (ependymoma) and neuroblastoma. The results remained valid in the multivariate analysis, and, for all cancers combined, the risk of death decreased by 20% between 2000-2002 and 2006-2008. The figures are consistent with various international estimates and are the result of progress in treatment regimens and collaborative clinical trials. The challenge for the French registries is now to study the long-term follow-up of survivors to estimate the incidence of long-term morbidities and adverse effects of treatments.
authors.affiliation: aFrench National Registry of Childhood Solid Tumours, CHU, Nancy bFrench Registry of Childhood Haematopoietic Malignancies cINSERM, CESP Environmental Epidemiology of Cancer dUniversity Paris-Sud 11, Villejuif, France.
authors.forename: Brigitte
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lacour
authors.forename: Stéphanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Goujon
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Guissou
authors.forename: Aurélie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Guyot-Goubin
authors.forename: Solène
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Desmée
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Désandes
authors.forename: Jacqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Clavel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality*; D011379:Prognosis; D012042:Registries; D015996:Survival Rate; D017741:Survivors; D013997:Time Factors