# Childhood cancers (all types)

Source: https://onco.cc/cancers/childhood-cancers/  
OnCo record `childhood-cancers` (Cancer). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Cancer in children is rare and different from adult cancer: the common types are leukaemias, brain tumours, lymphomas and embryonal tumours such as neuroblastoma and Wilms tumour, most are curable in well-resourced health systems, and the great challenge is bringing the same cures to the majority of children who live where they are not available.

## Summary

Childhood cancers are mostly not the carcinomas of adults but leukaemias, brain and spinal cord tumours, lymphomas and embryonal tumours that arise in developing tissue: neuroblastoma, Wilms tumour, retinoblastoma, hepatoblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma and bone sarcomas. Decades of cooperative group trials made most of them curable in high-income countries with combination chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy, and newer approaches such as CAR-T for leukaemia, anti-GD2 antibodies for neuroblastoma and targeted drugs for BRAF- or ALK-driven tumours are improving results further. Survival is far lower in low- and middle-income countries, where most children with cancer live, because of late diagnosis, abandonment of treatment and lack of drugs; the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer aims to raise survival there to at least 60% by 2030. Survivors carry lifelong late effects, so reducing treatment intensity where cure is secure is a major research theme. Adolescents and young adults (15 to 39) sit between paediatric and adult services and often do worse than either.

## Fields

- Kind: Cancer
- Last checked: 2026-09-04
- Also known as: Childhood Cancers; Paediatric cancers; Pediatric cancers; Cancer in children; Young Adults, Cancer in; Adolescent and young adult cancer
- Tags: paediatric; umbrella
- Group: paediatric
- Burden: About 400,000 children and adolescents aged 0 to 19 develop cancer each year worldwide (WHO); leukaemias, brain tumours and lymphomas are the commonest, and the chance of cure depends heavily on where a child lives.
- Subtypes: Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia; Acute myeloid leukaemia; Brain and spinal cord tumours (medulloblastoma, gliomas, ependymoma); Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma; Neuroblastoma; Wilms tumour; Retinoblastoma; Hepatoblastoma; Rhabdomyosarcoma and other soft tissue sarcomas; Osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma; Germ cell tumours; Rare tumours (pleuropulmonary blastoma, ATRT and others)
- Biomarkers: Cytogenetics and minimal residual disease in leukaemia; MYCN amplification in neuroblastoma; Molecular subgroups in medulloblastoma; Germline predisposition (Li-Fraumeni, RB1, WT1 and others)

## Sections of this record

The page is a hub with ten sections in reading order; large sections have their own page. The same plan as JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/cancers/childhood-cancers/sections.json

- Overview (on the hub): The TL;DR, the family this cancer belongs to, the organ, who gets it and what the state of the art is. https://onco.cc/cancers/childhood-cancers/#overview [7 subtypes]
- Types and stages (on the hub): Anatomy, the subtypes and how they differ, how it is staged, and where advanced disease spreads. https://onco.cc/cancers/childhood-cancers/#what-it-is [19 subtypes]
- Symptoms and diagnosis (on the hub): How this cancer shows itself, how the diagnosis is confirmed, and the biomarkers clinicians test for. https://onco.cc/cancers/childhood-cancers/#finding-it [4 biomarkers]
- Treatment (on the hub): The standard of care by setting, the medicines, surgery and radiotherapy named in it, and the regimens behind them. https://onco.cc/cancers/childhood-cancers/#treating-it [3 settings, 1 decision with options]
- Trials and papers (own page): Trials recruiting now, the landmark trials, the trials held by this cancer's subtypes, the key papers and what they mean, the latest literature, and the milestones year by year. https://onco.cc/cancers/childhood-cancers/evidence/ [27 trials, 21 trials in the subtypes, 3 milestones]
- Biology and targets (on the hub): The molecular landscape: the targets and how often each appears, the pathways, the mechanics stages and the preclinical models. https://onco.cc/cancers/childhood-cancers/#science [4 targets]
- Countries and centres (own page): Cases by country, the UK and NHS pathway and other country lenses, the expert centres with trials on record, and the centres named on this cancer's subtypes. https://onco.cc/cancers/childhood-cancers/where-you-are/ [2 centres, 218 centres in the subtypes]
- Decisions and support (on the hub): The decisions you may face, the aids that walk through them, the warnings on record, the first sixty days and the questions to ask. https://onco.cc/cancers/childhood-cancers/#living-with-it [14 questions, 6 red cards]
- Pipeline and open problems (own page): Everything in development, the medicines held by this cancer's subtypes, the open problems and what is being done about them, the roadmaps, and what changed on this record. https://onco.cc/cancers/childhood-cancers/coming/ [8 medicines, 27 medicines in the subtypes, 27 trials, 3 open problems]
- Data (own page): Every connected record, the notes, the JSON, Markdown and RDF twins, and where the record came from and when it was checked. https://onco.cc/cancers/childhood-cancers/data/ [94 connected records]

## Standard of care

- Leukaemias: Risk-stratified multi-agent chemotherapy over two to three years for ALL, with immunotherapy (blinatumomab, CAR-T) for high-risk or relapsed disease. See the ALL page. ([Blinatumomab](https://onco.cc/drugs/blinatumomab/), [Tisagenlecleucel](https://onco.cc/drugs/tisagenlecleucel/))
- Solid tumours: Surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy by risk group in cooperative group protocols; anti-GD2 antibody for high-risk neuroblastoma. See the neuroblastoma, Wilms, sarcoma and brain tumour pages. ([Dinutuximab (ch14.18) / dinutuximab beta](https://onco.cc/drugs/dinutuximab/))
- Survivorship: Lifelong follow-up for late effects on heart, fertility, growth and second cancers, with a survivorship care plan; trials that reduce therapy where cure rates are high. ([Survivorship care and late-effects surveillance](https://onco.cc/technologies/survivorship-care-plan/))

## Open problems

- Most children with cancer live where cure rates are below 30%.
- Late effects affect the majority of long-term survivors.
- Few new drugs are developed for children because the markets are small.

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood_cancer
- NCI: Childhood cancers: https://www.cancer.gov/types/childhood-cancers
- WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer: https://www.who.int/initiatives/the-global-initiative-for-childhood-cancer

## Connected records

- cancers: [Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia](https://onco.cc/cancers/all-leukemia/), [Acute myeloid leukaemia](https://onco.cc/cancers/aml/), [Adolescent and young adult cancers (ages 15 to 39)](https://onco.cc/cancers/aya-cancers/), [Atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumour (ATRT)](https://onco.cc/cancers/atrt/), [Burkitt lymphoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/burkitt-lymphoma/), [Childhood lung and airway tumours (pleuropulmonary blastoma, tracheobronchial tumours)](https://onco.cc/cancers/pleuropulmonary-blastoma/), [Choroid plexus carcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/choroid-plexus-carcinoma/), [Desmoplastic small round cell tumour](https://onco.cc/cancers/desmoplastic-small-round-cell-tumour/), [Diffuse midline glioma, H3 K27-altered (including DIPG)](https://onco.cc/cancers/dipg-dmg/), [Ependymoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/ependymoma/), [Ewing sarcoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/ewing-sarcoma/), [Germ cell tumours of childhood and adolescence (extracranial and CNS)](https://onco.cc/cancers/paediatric-germ-cell-tumours/), [Hepatoblastoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/hepatoblastoma/), [Hodgkin lymphoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/hodgkin-lymphoma/), [Medulloblastoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/medulloblastoma/), [Myeloid leukaemia of Down syndrome](https://onco.cc/cancers/myeloid-leukaemia-of-down-syndrome/), [Neuroblastoma (paediatric)](https://onco.cc/cancers/neuroblastoma/), [Optic pathway glioma](https://onco.cc/cancers/optic-pathway-glioma/), [Osteosarcoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/osteosarcoma/), [Paediatric high-grade glioma (excluding diffuse midline glioma)](https://onco.cc/cancers/paediatric-high-grade-glioma/), [Paediatric low-grade glioma](https://onco.cc/cancers/paediatric-low-grade-glioma/), [Pancreatoblastoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/pancreatoblastoma/), [Pleuropulmonary blastoma (types I, Ir, II and III)](https://onco.cc/cancers/pleuropulmonary-blastoma-dicer1/), [Poorly differentiated chordoma (SMARCB1-deficient)](https://onco.cc/cancers/poorly-differentiated-chordoma/), [Rare cancers of childhood (NCI PDQ umbrella)](https://onco.cc/cancers/rare-childhood-cancers/), [Retinoblastoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/retinoblastoma/), [Rhabdomyosarcoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/rhabdomyosarcoma/), [Sertoli cell tumour of the testis](https://onco.cc/cancers/sertoli-cell-tumour/), [Wilms tumour (nephroblastoma)](https://onco.cc/cancers/wilms-tumor/)
- technologies: [Adolescents and young adults: a group with its own cancers, its own gap and its own needs](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-ayac-distinct-group/), [Bone after childhood cancer: peak bone mass, osteonecrosis and what rebuilds](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-paed-bone/), [Breast cancer after chest radiotherapy in childhood, and the screening that follows](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-paed-breast-after-chest-radiotherapy/), [CAR-T cell therapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/car-t/), [Education, work and the years that were interrupted](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-ayac-education-and-work/), [Fertility in boys and young men treated for cancer, including testicular tissue banking](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-paed-fertility-male/), [Fertility in girls and young women treated for cancer, including ovarian tissue freezing](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-paed-fertility-female/), [Growth and final height after treatment in childhood, and growth hormone](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-paed-growth-and-height/), [Hearing after platinum and cranial radiotherapy in a developing child](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-paed-hearing/), [How long it takes to diagnose cancer in a young person, and what the evidence actually says](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-ayac-diagnostic-delay/), [How much illness childhood cancer survivors carry, and at what age](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-paed-chronic-disease-burden/), [Kidneys after cisplatin, ifosfamide, radiotherapy and nephrectomy in childhood](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-paed-kidneys/), [Late deaths after childhood cancer, what causes them, and the proof that gentler treatment worked](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-paed-late-mortality/), [Long-term follow-up in the United Kingdom: what a survivor is actually offered](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-paed-uk-long-term-follow-up/), [Memory, attention and learning after treatment of a childhood cancer](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-paed-neurocognitive/), [Methylation classifier for brain tumours](https://onco.cc/technologies/cns-tumour-methylation-classifier/), [Methylation classifier for sarcomas](https://onco.cc/technologies/sarcoma-methylation-classifier/), [Pencil-beam scanning and intensity-modulated proton therapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/intensity-modulated-proton-therapy/), [Photon-counting CT](https://onco.cc/technologies/photon-counting-ct/), [Proton therapy machines: cyclotrons, synchrotrons and single-room systems](https://onco.cc/technologies/proton-therapy-systems/), [Second cancers after childhood cancer: the risk by treatment, and why it is falling](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-paed-second-cancers/), [Services built for teenagers and young adults, and what the national evaluation found](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-ayac-services/), [Strain echocardiography (global longitudinal strain)](https://onco.cc/technologies/strain-echocardiography-gls/), [Survivorship care and late-effects surveillance](https://onco.cc/technologies/survivorship-care-plan/), [Teeth, jaws and facial growth after treatment in childhood](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-paed-teeth-and-face/), [The Children's Oncology Group Long-Term Follow-Up Guidelines](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-paed-cog-ltfu-guidelines/), [The handover from children's to adult services, where follow-up falls away](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-paed-transition-to-adult-care/), [The heart after anthracyclines and chest radiotherapy in childhood](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-paed-heart/), [The pituitary, puberty and the hypothalamic axis after cranial radiotherapy in childhood](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-paed-pituitary-and-puberty/), [TPMT and NUDT15 genotyping before thiopurines](https://onco.cc/technologies/tpmt-nudt15-genotyping/), [Troponin and natriuretic peptide monitoring during cancer treatment](https://onco.cc/technologies/cardiac-biomarker-monitoring/)
- targets: [CD19](https://onco.cc/targets/cd19/), [GD2 (disialoganglioside)](https://onco.cc/targets/gd2/)
- drugs: [Blinatumomab](https://onco.cc/drugs/blinatumomab/), [Dinutuximab (ch14.18) / dinutuximab beta](https://onco.cc/drugs/dinutuximab/), [Methotrexate](https://onco.cc/drugs/methotrexate/), [Naxitamab](https://onco.cc/drugs/naxitamab/), [Obecabtagene autoleucel](https://onco.cc/drugs/obecabtagene-autoleucel/), [Tisagenlecleucel](https://onco.cc/drugs/tisagenlecleucel/), [Tovorafenib](https://onco.cc/drugs/tovorafenib/), [Vincristine](https://onco.cc/drugs/vincristine/)
- trials: [A Study of pCAR-19B in the Treatment of CD19-positive Relapsed/Refractory B-ALL in Children and Adolescents](https://onco.cc/trials/nct05334823/), [A Study of Rozanolixizumab in Pediatric Study Participants With Moderate to Severe Generalized Myasthenia Gravis](https://onco.cc/trials/nct06149559/), [A Study to Evaluate Subcutaneous Zilucoplan in Pediatric Participants With Generalized Myasthenia Gravis](https://onco.cc/trials/nct06055959/), [ACNS0121](https://onco.cc/trials/acns0121/), [ACNS0122](https://onco.cc/trials/acns0122/), [ACNS0333](https://onco.cc/trials/acns0333/), [ACNS1123](https://onco.cc/trials/acns1123/), [ACNS1422](https://onco.cc/trials/acns1422/), [AEWS0031](https://onco.cc/trials/aews0031/), [AGCT1531](https://onco.cc/trials/agct1531/), [AHOD1331](https://onco.cc/trials/ahod1331/), [Alpelisib in Pediatric and Adult Patients With Lymphatic Malformations Associated With a PIK3CA Mutation.](https://onco.cc/trials/nct05948943/), [ANBL0531](https://onco.cc/trials/anbl0531/), [ANBL1221](https://onco.cc/trials/anbl1221/), [ANBL17P1](https://onco.cc/trials/anbl17p1/), [CEB-01 in Paediatrics With Locally Resectable Abdominal Tumours](https://onco.cc/trials/nct06986811/), [COG AREN0532](https://onco.cc/trials/aren0532/), [Durvalumab and Tremelimumab for Pediatric Malignancies](https://onco.cc/trials/nct03837899/), [EuroNet-PHL-C2](https://onco.cc/trials/euronet-phl-c2/), [Investigation of Remimazolam in Children Undergoing Sedation for Medical Procedures](https://onco.cc/trials/nct04851717/), [Open-label, Long-term Safety, Efficacy, and Pharmacokinetics Study of Vibegron in Pediatric Subjects 2 Years to < 18 Years of Age With NDO and on CIC](https://onco.cc/trials/nct05491525/), [Phase II Study of QLC2519 in Pediatric Solid Tumor Participants](https://onco.cc/trials/nct07724756/), [SIOPEL-3](https://onco.cc/trials/siopel-3/), [SIOPEL-4](https://onco.cc/trials/siopel-4/), [SJMB12](https://onco.cc/trials/sjmb12/), [Study to Evaluate the Safety, Tolerability, PK Characteristics and Anti-tumor Activity of FCN-159 in Adult and Pediatric Participants With Neurofibromatosis Type 1](https://onco.cc/trials/nct04954001/), [Study With IV NEPA (Fosnetupitant/Palonosetron) for the Prevention of Chemotherapy-induced Nausea and Vomiting in Paediatric Cancer Patients Undergoing Highly Emetogenic Chemotherapy (HEC)](https://onco.cc/trials/nct06904235/)
- people: [Darren R. Hargrave](https://onco.cc/people/darren-hargrave/), [Giles W. Robinson](https://onco.cc/people/giles-robinson/), [Inge M. van der Sluis](https://onco.cc/people/inge-van-der-sluis/), [Jacques Grill](https://onco.cc/people/jacques-grill/), [Kimberly P. Dunsmore](https://onco.cc/people/kimberly-dunsmore/), [Rob Pieters](https://onco.cc/people/rob-pieters/), [Sarah E. S. Leary](https://onco.cc/people/sarah-leary/)
- institutions: [Carilion Clinic / Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine](https://onco.cc/institutions/carilion-clinic/), [Seattle Children's Hospital](https://onco.cc/institutions/seattle-childrens/)
- companies: [Blaze Bioscience](https://onco.cc/companies/blaze-bioscience/), [First Ascent Biomedical](https://onco.cc/companies/first-ascent-biomedical/)
- terms: [Second cancers after radiotherapy](https://onco.cc/terms/second-cancers-after-radiotherapy/)

---
JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/childhood-cancers.json