Cancer in children and young people – what do the statistics tell us?
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1. Every day in the UK 10 children or young people are diagnosed with cancer
While cancer is rare in children and young people, there are around 3,755 young people diagnosed with cancer each year in the UK. That’s 1,645 in children (aged 0-14 years) and 2,110 in teenagers and young adults (aged 15-24 years).
Cancer is more common in young males. Around 1 in every 420 boys under the age of 15 developed cancer compared to 1 in 490 girls. For young people aged 15-24, it was 1 in every 360 for males and 1 in 380 for females.
For both males and females, cancer incidence is higher in the first five years of life, falls to its lowest rate at age 5 to 9 years, and then starts to increase again from 10 years of age marking the start of an unbroken rise in incidence that continues into the teenage years and throughout adulthood.
2. Children and young people get different types of cancer compared to adults
Children and young people get different types of cancer to adults and are generally more...
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