过去40年英国青少年因癌症死亡人数下降近60%

  近日，来自英国癌症中心的研究数据显示，在过去40年里儿童和年轻人因癌症死亡率降低了58%，近年来在治疗24岁及以下年轻人的癌症进展上取得了空前的进步，在20世纪70年代每年大约有1300人因癌症死亡，而如今因癌症死亡的人数降至了550人。

  Harpal Kumar表示，在下一个5-10年里，我们希望加倍治疗癌症的投资；目前因白血病死亡的人数明显下降，在过去10年里因患白血病的平均死亡人数下降了39%，死亡人数大约从180人下降到了110人，尽管如此，癌症依然是威胁英国儿童和年轻人的最大杀手，每年因癌症死亡的人数大约为550人，其中很多都是患脑瘤而死亡。

  尽管当前在癌症生存率上取得了明显改善，但癌症依然是威胁年轻人健康的一个风险因素，然而儿童往往会进行长达数月痛苦的治疗，不幸的是癌症疗法会给患者带来许多不同的副作用，比如不育、残疾等，其将影响癌症患者的一生。研究者Kearns表示，每天我都会看到很多儿童和年轻人进行痛苦的治疗，在治疗的过程中患者也要克服很多的副作用，因此我们需要投入更多的资金来帮助研究副作用较小的有效抗癌疗法。

  在英国每年大约有1600名儿童和2200名青少年及青年人群被诊断为癌症，从20世纪60年代以来14岁及以下的癌症儿童的10年总体生存率增加了近两倍，大约四分之三的癌症儿童都被治愈了，但是相比儿童而言，年轻人的癌症生存率却明显下降了，尤其是在某些特殊的癌症上。相比其它疾病而言癌症是往往会引发更多的儿童和青少年死亡，但研究者们很庆幸如今看到这些人群的癌症死亡率发生了明显下降。

  最后研究者相信，随着后期大量研究资金的投入，未来新型的疗法将指日可待，而且因癌症死亡的儿童和青少年将会越来越少。（转化医学网360zhyx.com）

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Progress in treating the disease has led to this unprecedented drop among youngsters aged 24 and under, with around 1,300 deaths each year in the mid-1970s dropping to around 550 deaths today.

"In the next 5-10 years Cancer Research UK hopes to double the amount it spends on these cancers.” - Harpal Kumar, CEO
The steepest decline was in leukaemia, where the average number of deaths dropped by 39 per cent in the past 10 years, falling from around 180 deaths each year to around 110.

Despite this, cancer remains the biggest killer of children and young people in the UK, with around 550 young lives lost to the disease every year, many from brain tumours.
Professor Pam Kearns (link is external), director of the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit in Birmingham (link is external), said: “These figures are testament to the real progress we’re making in treating children and young people with cancer. Cancer Research UK has been instrumental in this progress. But hundreds of young people are dying from cancer each year in the UK, which means there’s still much more we need to do.”

Despite improvements in survival, cancer has a huge impact on youngsters. Children can face months of painful treatment, as well as the upset of being away from home and friends and unfortunately some face living with long-term side-effects from their treatment, such as infertility, and disability, which have an impact throughout their adult lives.

Professor Kearns added: “Every day, I see the extreme bravery of children and young people going through difficult treatments.  Whilst many go on to live full lives, they may have to deal with the side-effects of treatment for years to come. So it is vital that we continue to increase funding for research into kinder and better treatments that will offer new hope to children and their families.”
The new figures are announced as the charity launches Cancer Research UK Kids & Teens – an ongoing campaign to fund more research to find better, kinder treatments and cures to beat cancer in younger people sooner.

Fiona Barnett from Wimbledon, whose son Rufus was diagnosed with leukaemia aged six and attended a reception hosted by Samantha Cameron at 10 Downing Street this week to launch the campaign, said: “When they told me it was leukaemia my first question was ‘is he going to die?’ Treatment started immediately and over the course of that first year Rufus had to endure seemingly nonstop lumbar punctures, injections and general anaesthetics, not to mention infections, horrible medicines and hideous side-effects. It felt like it would never end, but one year after diagnosis we were so relieved to hear that Rufus was responding well, which indicated that he had a very good chance of complete recovery.......