15 February 2019: The World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is calling for better health data on cancer in children, to support efforts to double the current survival rate globally. The WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer seeks to achieve a 60% survival rate for children with cancer globally, by 2030.

SDG target 3.4 aims to reduce premature mortality from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by one-third, and is measured in part with an indicator for cancer mortality (SDG indicator 3.4.1).

The IARC is the specialized cancer agency of the WHO, and promotes international collaboration on cancer research. The agency reports that typical childhood cancers differ from the types of cancer in adults, and many children with cancer do not receive the right treatment. Around half of all childhood cancers relate to blood cell disorders, and others relate to tumors of the central nervous system or develop from embryonal tissue. The agency reports high global inequality in survival rates of children with cancer, with 80% of child patients in high-resource settings surviving cancer, compared with about 20% in low-resource settings.

In September 2018, WHO launched the Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer to build the capacity of countries to provide treatment. WHO describes the Global Initiative, which established following the Third Global High-Level Meeting on NCDs, a milestone in furthering achievement of the SDGs, especially SDG target 3.4.

The UN marked International Childhood Cancer Day on 15 February. [UN Press Release] [IARC Statement] [IARC Website] [Global Indicator Framework for the SDGs] [WHO Webpage on Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer]