Progress towards the goal of the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer

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A study of 68 countries conducted by the CONCORD-4 research team in England shows that the WHO target for 2030 (a 5-year survival rate of 60% for all childhood cancers) is already being met or exceeded by most countries today. Switzerland achieved one of the best results, even compared with other high-income countries. This suggests that the WHO target could be set higher.

What is it about?
Researchers investigated how good the chances of recovery are for children with cancer worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) aims for at least 60% of all affected children globally to survive the first five years after diagnosis by 2030.

What was done?
The scientists analyzed the disease trajectories of more than 600,000 children from 68 different countries over a 30-year period (1990 to 2019). They developed a method for this (the Cancer Survival Index, CSI) that allows fair comparisons of survival rates across countries, regardless of which cancer types are most common in each country. The Swiss Childhood Cancer Registry participated in this study.

What were the results?

  • Good news: In almost all countries studied, more children survive today than in the past.
  • Large differences: In high-income countries (such as Switzerland, Germany, or the USA), more than 80% of children survive. In lower-income countries, survival rates are often between 50% and 80%.
  • Switzerland performed very well: With a 5-year survival rate of 89.5%, it achieved the second-best result of all countries in the most recent study period (2014–2019), after Norway (90%).
  • WHO target: The WHO goal of a 60% survival rate has already been reached in many of the countries studied.

What does this mean for the future?
The results show that many countries have already exceeded, achieved, or nearly reached the WHO target for 2030 (60%). This suggests that the WHO goal may not be ambitious enough and should be set higher.

Find the link to the full study down below:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(26)00189-3/fulltext

Questions: Claudia Kuehni, claudia.kuehni@unibe.ch