ATLANTA (Reuters) – Brain cancer is now the deadliest form of childhood cancer in the United States, surpassing leukemia as treatment advances have allowed doctors to cure many blood-relatedcancers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saidon Friday.
In 1999, nearly one in three children who died of cancer had leukemia, while brain cancer caused the deaths of one in four.
By 2014, the numbers had reversed, researchers found comparing death rates from pediatric cancers in these years.
“Forms of leukemia that a generation ago were almost universally fatal are now almost universally curable,” said Sally Curtin, an author of the report, in a telephone interview.