Facts and statistics
The following are from the Office for National Statistics. Analysed by Dr. Robert Alston, Professor Jillian Birch and Professor Tim Eden.
Every day six young people (13 to 24 year-olds) in the UK are told they have cancer. That’s about 2,100 young people a year.
Cancer is the number one cause of non-accidental death in teenagers and young adults in the UK.
One in 312 males and one in 361 females will get cancer before they are 20.
Boys up to the age of 15 have a one in 450 chance of developing cancer, rising to one in 208 by the time they reach 24. Girls up to the age of 15 have a one in 517 chance of developing cancer, rising to one in 239 by the time they reach 24.
Different cancers predominate at different ages: leukaemia, lymphomas and brain tumours in 13 to18 year-olds, and lymphomas, carcinomas (soft tissue cancers) and germ cell tumours (e.g. testicular cancer) in 19 to 24 year-olds.
Overall incidence of teenage and young adult cancer has risen by 1.5% per year over the last 30 years.
Incidence rates are now higher in 13 to 24 year-olds than in children, yet survival rates for this age group have not improved as much as survival rates in children.
Nearly three-quarters of British teenagers and young adults who develop cancer now survive cancer. The greatest increase in survival rates is for leukaemia, which has risen by over 20% over the last 20 years. But survival rates for brain tumours, bone cancers and soft tissue cancers have not changed much since the 1980s.
Young people get some of the most aggressive cancers, which can be made worse by their growth spurts. Yet because only 0.5% of all cancers occur in teenagers and young adults, they are often misdiagnosed initially. This decreases their chances of survival and can mean they are excluded from clinical trials.
Until the age of 16 a teenager is likely to be treated in a paediatric ward alongside children. After turning 16, the same teenager would end up in an adult ward with elderly patients.
It is important for young people’s physical health and psychological well-being that they be treated in a specialist facility that is built to meet their needs. It is also critical for their emotional well-being that they are treated in a comfortable environment where they have the opportunity to meet young people their age who they can relate to.
Teenage Cancer Trust estimates that with the nine units we have around the UK, four out of 10 teenagers diagnosed with cancer now have access to a Teenage Cancer Trust unit. Our aim is to build enough units so that by 2012, every teenager will be treated on one.
Find your sense of tumour
Our conference for young people with cancer and it takes place every year.
The chance for young people to get together, meet, and share their experiences with other people their own age.
Health professionals
Do you work in or have an interest in teenage and young adult cancer services?
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Research
Teenage Cancer Trust funds the country’s first Professor of Teenage Cancer Medicine who leads research into why young people get cancer and how best to treat it.
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