Substantial Progress Made Against Childhood Cancers, Report Says

Key TakeawaysSignificant advances have been made against childhood cancerSurvival rates have climbed and death rates have fallenHowever, some cancers remain extremely deadly and disparities still exist for some groups of U.S. children with cancer .FRIDAY, Dec. 5, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Leanna Munir was a 6-year-old bundle of energy two years ago, until one day her vim and vigor vanished without warning.“I couldn’t force her to come in the house after school or sit down,” recalled her mom, Adrian Horn. “Then, she just started slowing down a lot and it was not like her. So that’s how we knew something was wrong.”Repeated colds and fatigue led doctors to think she might have strep throat or tonsil problems, but it wound up being something far worse — leukemia.But Leanna, now 8, survived her cancer and is thriving, thanks to immune therapy breakthroughs of the past decades.Leanna is one of thousands of pediatric cancer patients who have benefited from cutting-edge advances in treatment, the American Association for Cancer Research wrote in its first-ever report on the subject.The five-year survival rate for all pediatric cancers combined climbed to 87% in 2015 to 2021 in the United States, far higher than the 63% rate of the mid-1970s, according to the AACR Pediatric Cancer Progress Report 2025.Pediatric cancer deaths fell by 57% between 1970 and 2000, and by a another 19% between 2001 and 2023, the report found.“With this inaugural report, we are highlighting the tremendous progress achieved against pediatric and adolescent cancers and are discussing the remaining challenges,” AACR past president Elaine Mardis, and co-chair of the report’s steering committee, said in a news release.Pediatric cancers are rare but heartbreaking. It’s estimated that nearly 15,000 U.S. children and teens will be diagnosed with cancer in 2025, and nearly 1,700 will die from the disease, the AACR report says.Between 2015 and 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved more than 20 targeted therapies and more than 10 immunotherapies for pediatric cancers, the report says.In fact, the proportion of cancer drugs approved specifically for children increased from 6% between 2012 and 2016 to nearly 14% between 2017 and 2021.Leanna benefitted from one of these new treatments, an immunotherapy called CAR T-cell therapy.In the treatment, immune cells called T-cells are taken from the patient’s own blood, explained one of Leanna’s doctors, pediatric oncologist Dr. Susan Rheingold with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). “We then genetically manipulate them so that instead of going back in and attacking things like viruses, they attack the child’s leukemia cells,” Rheingold said in the report.Before her diagnosis, CHOP doctors first tried treating Leanna with a series of blood transfusions during a two-week hospital stay, but after three days back home her symptoms returned.Around 1:30 a.m. the night they went back to CHOP, her parents learned what had been ailing their girl.“Five doctors walked in and said: ‘We believe it’s leukemia,’” Horn recalled. “I was in shock. I just wanted information. I was like, ‘What’s our next step?’”Leanna’s cancer care team quickly learned that chemotherapy likely wouldn’t help her, as she carried a genetic mutation that made her chemo-resistant. After three months of chemo, her bone marrow still showed more than 70% leukemia cells.That’s when the team turned to CAR T-cell therapy, which received FDA approval in 2017.“They told her, ‘We’re taking your cells from kindergarten and sending them off to college, and eventually you will get them back,’” adding that those cells would then fight her cancer, Horn said.Leanna received her first infusion of her re-engineered immune cells in Nov. 2024. Within weeks, her cancer began to disappear.“Out of everything that we’ve done, CAR T was the easiest on her body,” Adrian said. “It used her own cells, and her body absorbed them. It has been so much easier on her bones, her joints, no nausea, and she didn’t lose all her hair.”Today, Leanna shows almost no evidence of leukemia. She’s tearing through second grade, catching up on lessons she missed while running, laughing and playing with friends and family.“Ten years ago, CAR T therapy didn’t exist,” Horn said. “Without it, Lianna’s next step would’ve been a bone marrow transplant.”There remain ongoing challenges that need to be addressed to benefit all childhood cancer survivors, the AACR report says.Survivors face a significantly higher risk of long-term health issues, with 60% to 90% developing at least one chronic health problem in adulthood because of their cancer or its treatment, the report said.In fact, by age 50, childhood cancer survivors have nearly twice as many chronic health problems as other people their age, the report said.Additionally, some cancers are proving harder to crack than others. Certain gliomas and sarcomas continue to be incredibly deadly, with five-year survival rates below 25%, the report says.“In several lethal cancer types, there remains a significant need for new insights, novel therapies, and international clinical trials to achieve similar progress,” Mardis said. “One route to address this need is by emphasizing the importance of continued data and information sharing across the world and pursuing new model systems for research, given the rare nature of these diseases.”To keep the ball rolling, the AACR report calls on the federal government to sustain cancer research funding through both the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute.There also remain significant disparities in the United States when it comes to pediatric cancers, the report noted.Hispanic children have the highest cancer rates in the United States, and Black children are 30% more likely to die from certain pediatric cancers than white kids, the report says.Children living in rural or poor communities also face higher death rates, often because they don’t have access to cancer centers and clinical trials, the report says.“By drawing attention to the current promise and persistent challenges in this field, we trust that this report will catalyze increased federal and private investments in pediatric cancer research, ensuring that children and adolescents benefit from the same advances that are transforming the cancer care of adult patients,” Dr. Margaret Foti, CEO of AACR, said in a news release.More informationThe National Cancer Institute has more on childhood cancers.SOURCES: American Association for Cancer Research, news release, Dec. 4, 2025; AACR Pediatric Cancer Progress Report 2025, Dec. 4, 2025.What This Means For YouChildhood cancers are more treatable than ever, but more progress is possible..Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Substantial Progress Made Against Childhood Cancers, Report Says

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