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. 2022 Sep:40:233-247.
doi: 10.1016/j.jare.2022.06.001. Epub 2022 Jun 11.

Global, regional, and national childhood cancer burden, 1990-2019: An analysis based on the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Ying Wu  1 , Yujiao Deng  1 , Bajin Wei  2 , Dong Xiang  3 , Jingjing Hu  4 , Peng Zhao  5 , Shuai Lin  6 , Yi Zheng  1 , Jia Yao  7 , Zhen Zhai  1 , Shuqian Wang  7 , Weiyang Lou  7 , Si Yang  1 , Dai Zhang  6 , Jun Lyu  8 , Zhijun Dai  9
Affiliations

Global, regional, and national childhood cancer burden, 1990-2019: An analysis based on the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Ying Wu et al. J Adv Res. 2022 Sep.

Abstract

Introduction: Cancer is the leading cause of death among children.

Objectives: We report on the latest estimates of the burden of cancer among children at the global, regional, and national levels from 1990 to 2019.

Methods: Based on the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019, children's cancer data were analyzed by sex, age, year, and location. Age-standardized rates were used to compare the burdens among regions and nations. Joinpoint analysis was applied to assess the temporal trend of the global childhood cancer burden.

Results: In 2019, 291,319 (95% uncertainty interval [UI], 254,239 to 331,993) new cases and 98,834 (86,124 to 113,581) deaths from childhood cancer were documented globally. Further, 8,302,464 (7,230,447 to 9,555,118) DALYs and 1,806,630 (1,567,808 to 2,089,668) prevalent cases were recorded in the same year. Age-standardized incidence and prevalence rates of childhood cancer were greatest in higher SDI settings and increased most significantly in Australasia and Southern Latin America over the last 30 years. However, although age-standardized death and DALY rates of childhood cancer have remarkably decreased in all regions since 1990, countries with a lower SDI showed the highest rates in 2019, particularly in countries in Eastern Sub-Saharan Africa. Among all cancers, leukemia has shown the largest decrease in burden since 1990. Despite this, leukemia was still the most common cancer and the leading cause of death among children in 2019, followed by brain and central nervous system cancer.

Conclusions: On a global scale, the childhood cancer burden has significantly fallen over the last 30 years, but is still higher in lower SDI countries. Effective interventions and collaborations among nations should be facilitated to improve healthcare among children with cancer in countries with lower SDI.

Keywords: Burden; Cancer; Childhood; Epidemiology; Global burden of disease study.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

None
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Global trends for age-standardized rates (per 100,000 population) of childhood cancer from 1990 to 2019. (a) age-standardized incidence rate; (b) age-standardized prevalence rate; (c) age-standardized death rate; (d) age-standardized DALY rate. Abbreviations: DALY disability-adjusted life-year.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Regional age-standardized rates (per 100,000 population) of childhood cancer in 2019 and their percentage changes in rates for different sexes from 1990 to 2019. (a) age-standardized incidence rate in 2019; (b) percentage change in age-standardized incidence rate, 1990−2019; (c) age-standardized prevalence rate in 2019; (d) percentage change in age-standardized prevalence rate, 1990−2019; (e) age-standardized death rate in 2019; (f) percentage change in age-standardized death rate, 1990−2019; (g) age-standardized DALY rate in 2019; (h) percentage change in age-standardized DALY rate, 1990−2019. Abbreviations: DALY disability-adjusted life-year.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
National age-standardized rates (per 100,000 population) of childhood cancer for both sexes combined in 2019. (a) age-standardized incidence rate; (b) age-standardized prevalence rate; (c) age-standardized death rate; (d) age-standardized DALY rate. Abbreviations: DALY disability-adjusted life-year. Note: The original data was obtained from the GBD studies. There might be problems in regional division, which however was not the key point for this study.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Trends for age-standardized rates (per 100,000 population) of childhood cancer among 21 regions by SDI for both sexes combined from 1990 to 2019. (a) age-standardized incidence rate; (b) age-standardized prevalence rate; (c) age-standardized death rate; (d) age-standardized DALY rate. Abbreviations: SDI sociodemographic index; DALY disability-adjusted life-year.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Childhood cancers ranked by number of deaths for both sexes combined, globally and regionally, 2019.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Percentage changes in age-standardized rates (per 100,000 population) of childhood cancers for both sexes combined from 1990 to 2019. (a) age-standardized DALY rate; (b) age-standardized death rate; (c) age-standardized incidence rate; (d) age-standardized prevalence rate. Abbreviations: DALY disability-adjusted life-year.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Distributions of different leukemia sub-types among children with different age and sex. The upper column in each group is data for boys, and the lower column in each group is data for girls. (a) incidence; (b) prevalence; (c) deaths; (d) DALYs. Abbreviations: DALYs disability-adjusted life-years.
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