Epidemiology of childhood cancer in Asia.

According to the 2022 estimates of the Global Cancer Observatory, 280,000 children (aged 0-19 years) are diagnosed with cancer worldwide, with more than 105,000 dying from it. Asia, with its population of 1.4 billion children, accounts for about half of these figures. In 2018, the World Health Organization launched the Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer (WHO GICC) with the goal of achieving at least 60% survival for children with cancer globally by 2030. In Asia, the 5-year net survival based on microsimulation model was estimated to be 39.6%, which was lower than the estimates reported for Europe (74.3%) and North America (83.0%). Incidence and survival data are essential to understanding the burden of childhood cancer, however, less than 5% of the childhood population is covered by population-based cancer registries providing comparable data on incidence in Asia. In this first paper of a Series on childhood cancer in Asia, we provide an overview of the available information on the childhood cancer incidence, mortality, survival and prevalence of survivors in Central, Southern, Eastern and Southeastern Asia. We highlight lack of comparable data, the challenges associated with data collection and propose strategies to improve childhood cancer data in Asia. This is the first in a Series of three papers on childhood cancer in Asia (Paper 2 appears also in eClinicalMedicine and paper 3 appears in The Lancet Child and Adolescence Health).