Childhood Cancer Awareness Month 2026

More than 275 000 children and young adults (ages 0–19 years) were diagnosed with cancer in 2024, according to the latest GLOBOCAN estimates from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). However, the actual numbers may be much higher, because childhood cancer is difficult to diagnose and access to health services, diagnostics, and cancer registries may be lacking in many countries.

Recent research from IARC scientists and partners shows that the disparities in childhood cancer go far beyond simply being able to quantify the burden. Although childhood cancer incidence rates are estimated to be highest in North America and Europe, nearly 94% of the deaths from childhood cancer occur in Africa, Asia, South America, and the Caribbean. Children in these regions are almost twice as likely to die from cancer as those in Europe and North America. IARC is addressing these inequalities in diagnosis, treatment, survival, and biological characteristics through the Childhood Cancer – Epidemiology, Research, and Omics (CICERO) project, which began field activities this year in close collaboration with clinical and research partners in Kenya, Malawi, and the United Republic of Tanzania. CICERO follows children and adolescents who are newly diagnosed with cancer throughout their journey, from diagnosis to treatment and follow-up, to better understand delays in diagnosis, access to care, treatment adherence, and outcomes.

The cancer types that occur most often in children and young adults are very different from those that occur mainly in adults. About half of cancers in adults can be attributed to lifestyle factors and environmental exposures acting over many years, but the causes of childhood cancers remain much less understood, which makes their prevention particularly challenging. Because childhood cancers develop early in life, research is increasingly investigating whether genetic susceptibility and environmental exposures before birth and during childhood may contribute to their development, including through epigenetic changes, which affect how genes are switched on or off without changing the DNA sequence. One project aiming to shed light on these early events and ultimately improve prevention is the Susceptibility, Environmental Exposures, and Disease Initiation in Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (SEED-AML) project, which IARC will undertake with international partners.

Understanding how environmental exposures contribute to childhood cancer is also at the heart of the Epi-BEAM project, led by IARC. The project focuses on endemic Burkitt lymphoma, one of the most common childhood cancers in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and aims to identify environmental exposures that may contribute to its development. In particular, Epi-BEAM investigates whether early-life exposure to mycotoxins – food contaminants that are widespread in many affected regions – may interact with Epstein–Barr virus infection and induce epigenetic changes that increase the risk of developing Burkitt lymphoma. By identifying potentially preventable environmental risk factors and understanding how they act, the project aims to open up new opportunities for preventing this important childhood cancer in sub-Saharan Africa.

IARC recently launched a new subsite of the Global Cancer Observatory, called SURVCAN, which enables users to visualize survival of childhood cancer, based on high-quality population-based data from Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

The newly funded Towards the Elimination of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) in Children (ELI-ALL) project brings together 18 partner institutions, as part of the Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults cluster of the European Union Cancer Mission. ELI-ALL aims to establish whether exposure to environmental factors, including air pollution, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and pesticides, during pregnancy and early childhood contributes to the development of pre-leukaemic clones and subsequent ALL. By combining large birth cohorts with biological samples, prospective and registry-based studies, epigenetic research, and environmental exposure data, the project will investigate the biological mechanisms linking environmental exposures to childhood leukaemia. ELI-ALL will also address the ethical and societal implications of emerging genetic, epigenetic, and environmental evidence and conduct a scientific consensus-based evaluation of selected PFAS compounds through an IARC Monographs evaluation. Ultimately, the project aims to provide a robust scientific foundation for primary prevention strategies that could reduce the number of children who develop ALL in Europe and worldwide.

IARC researchers are helping drive global action on childhood cancer through work including standardizing and improving cancer registration, understanding the role of environmental exposures, uncovering the molecular determinants of childhood cancer, and supporting the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer. Together, these efforts aim to help ensure that all children, wherever they live, have a better chance of surviving cancer; the WHO initiative targets a survival rate of at least 60% globally by 2030.

Explore the SURVCAN platform 

Visit the IARC Childhood Cancer webpage 

Read about the IARC Childhood Cancer Awareness and Research Evidence Team (CCARE)