15/02/2026
Cancer is often spoken about as one disease.
But when it appears in childhood, the science shifts.
In children, the most common cancers are leukaemias, particularly Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL). The encouraging reality is that this disease is highly curable, with survival rates of nearly 80–90% when diagnosed and treated appropriately.
Unlike many adult cancers, childhood cancers are not typically caused by lifestyle or long-term exposure. They begin much earlier, during critical stages of growth and development. That’s why the cancers we see in children, and the way they behave, are fundamentally different from those in adults.
Which also means care cannot be borrowed, scaled down, or standardised. It has to be designed around a body that is still growing, learning, and becoming.
On International Childhood Cancer Day, we recognise that while cancer may share a name, childhood cancer follows a different rulebook and deserves care built for it.
