Cancer treatment complications lead to death of 1 in 15 children, says study

Roughly one in 15 children receiving cancer treatment in low- and middle-income countries, or LMICs, die from treatment-related complications, new research published in The Lancet Oncology said. Treatment-related mortality in LMICs has been reported in up to 45 per cent of children having cancer, while the figure is between 3 and 5 per cent in high-income countries, the meta-analytical study of 501 articles describing treatment-related mortality in paediatric patients, aged 0 to 21 years, with cancer in LMICs said.

The study said that although treatment-related mortality has come down in upper-middle-income countries over time, it remains unchanged in LMICs, stressing an urgent need for targeted supportive care interventions to reduce global disparities in childhood cancer survival.

The study estimated the treatment-related mortality at 6.82 per cent, accounting for 30.9 per cent of overall mortality.


Further, mortality from treatment complications was found to be 14.19 per cent in low-income countries, 9.21 per cent in lower-middle-income countries, and 4.47 per cent in upper-middle-income countries, expressing its inverse relation with country income.

Around 90 per cent of children with cancer live in LMICs, where 5-year survival is lower than 20 per cent.

The 501 articles identified and chosen for meta-analysis were published between Jan 1, 2010, and June 22, 2021.