China sees marked rise in 5-year survival rate for pediatric, adolescent cancers

BEIJING -- China's pediatric and adolescent cancer patients have achieved a 5-year survival rate of 77.2 percent, marking significant progress, with some specific types reaching world-class levels, study results showed on Wednesday.

The study, conducted by the National Center for Pediatric Cancer Surveillance (NCPCS), also showed that the 5-year survival rate for children aged below 14 years old stood at 77.8 percent, while that for adolescents aged between 15 and 19 years old was 75.3 percent. The survival rate for girls was slightly higher than that for boys.

Among the surveyed cancers, retinoblastoma had the highest 5-year survival rate at 91.2 percent, while malignant bone tumors had the lowest at 60.4 percent.

Notably, for the six high-priority cancer types identified by the World Health Organization (WHO)'s Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer, China's 5-year survival rates all exceeded 80 percent, with the highest reaching 93.8 percent. This far surpassed the WHO's target of a 60-percent survival rate for these cancers, which are acute lymphoblastic leukemia, Burkitt lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, retinoblastoma, Wilms tumor, and low-grade glioma.

"Compared with estimates from a decade ago, the 5-year survival rate for cancer patients aged 0-19 in China has improved markedly," said Ni Xin, director of the NCPCS and president of Beijing Children's Hospital, which is affiliated with Capital Medical University.

"Particularly for common childhood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma, progress has been significant. The survival rates for neuroblastoma, retinoblastoma, and Hodgkin lymphoma are now close to the levels seen in high-income countries," Ni noted.

He credited these improvements to China's sustained healthcare reforms, the enhanced inter-provincial medical billing system, specialized policies for major disease treatment, the adoption of standardized treatment protocols, and the development of a multi-center collaborative network.

For a long time, the absence of authoritative, high-quality data on childhood and adolescent cancer survival rates presented a significant gap in China's healthcare landscape. To address this, the NCPCS was established in 2019, with a mandate to standardize the nationwide registration and management of pediatric oncology cases.

As of December 2025, the NCPCS has developed an extensive monitoring network, encompassing 31 provincial-level regions and integrating data from 1,760 designated hospitals and medical institutions.

This study analyzed 95,189 cases registered within this network. All cases involved individuals aged 0-19 who were diagnosed between 2018 and 2020. The research delivered a comprehensive analysis, reporting 5-year survival rates across 12 major diagnostic categories and 47 specific cancer subtypes.

The complete findings of this study have been published in the international medical journal The Lancet.