During his joint speech to Congress on Tuesday, President Donald Trump spoke about childhood cancer rates, saying that it was a priority of his administration to address this problem.
“Since 1975, childhood cancer rates have increased by more than 40 percent,” Trump said during his speech. “Reversing this trend is one of the main priorities for our new presidential commission to make the United States again healthy again, chaired by our new Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.”
The president also took the time to highlight a 13 -year -old brain cancer survivor, whom he invited as a special guest to attend his speech.
Although it is not clear where Trump obtained the 40%figure, the data shows that child cancer rates have increased in recent decades. However, a pediatric oncologist told ABC News that an important context in that statement is missing, such as the effect of advances in early detection and possible environmental factors.
“It is accurate to say that these diagnoses have increased in the follow -up data,” Dr. John Prensner, assistant professor of pediatrics and biological chemistry in the department of Biology of Cancer in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Michigan told ABC News. “I think the context for these numbers is incredibly important and that is what I think has been left out, perhaps, of conversation.”
In addition, childhood cancer treatments have improved and the number of childhood cancer survivors is increasing, Pressner said.
President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, on Tuesday, March 4, 2025.
Alex Brandon/AP
What the data shows
A study published earlier this year in the magazine Plos one That was carried out by researchers in the United States, Germany and Jordan, they discovered that children’s cancer rates in the United States have increased by approximately 33% since 1975.
The study found that the incidence of childhood cancer increased from 14.23 cases per 100,000 children between 1975 and 1979 to approximately 18.89 cases per 100.00 children between 2010 and 2019.
The increase was found in certain types of cancer, including LEUCEMIAS, Lymphomas, brain tumors, liver tumorsand gonadal germ cell tumorsAccording to the study.
In addition, a Report of the US Environmental Protection Agency. He discovered that in the last 40 years, the number of children diagnosed with leukemia has increased by approximately 35%.
These trends reflect what has been seen in major populations, with Cancer rates also increase in adults under 50 years.
Why are rates increasing
Prensner said scientists believe that there are many reasons probably for which child cancer rates are increasing.
A reason is a better detection and the dramatic improvement in medical tests in recent decades, according to Prensner, who said that many of the tests that are now commonly used did not exist 50 years ago.
“These include dramatic and dramatic improvements in the ways in which we can imagine patients with cats of cats and magnetic resonance scans,” Pressner told ABC News. “This includes improvements in the way we monitor and detect certain patients. Now we have much more information about patients who can have what is called cancer syndrome, which means they have an increased risk of developing cancer.”
“In these patients, we actively monitor them to be able to make early diagnoses before cancers can spread, so these patients may not have been monitored in previous decades because we did not have that scientific information,” he added.
Prensner said he is not an expert in the risk of cancer due to environmental exhibitions, but that the data suggests that these factors may also be playing a role in increasing childhood cancer rates.
TO March 2024 study That analyzed more than 200 previous studies found that exposure to pesticides, dangerous air pollutants, chemicals such as benzene and vehicular emissions has been linked to higher rates of children’s cancers, particularly leukemia.
Decreased infant mortality
While child cancer rates have increased, childhood cancer mortality rates have decreased significantly in recent decades. Between 2001 and 2021, the cancer mortality rate for US children and adolescents of 19 years or less decreased by 24%, from 2.75 to 2.10 per 100,000 individuals, according to data from the data from the data of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Centers for disease control and prevention).
Prensner said they are close to 500,000 children’s cancer survivors In the United States, many of whom are now adults, indicating that more children survive cancer, probably due to progress in medical treatments and early detection.
Stock image of a doctor reviewing the heartbeat of a pediatric patient.
Terry Vine/Getty Images
“There are some types of children’s cancers that are associated with congenital anomalies or birth defects, and patients born with these different disorders also receive better care now, so that they can have a higher cancer rate now now, because they live longer, while they may not have lived almost so much in 1980,” Prensner said.
In a statement to ABC News, Lisa Lacasse, president of the Cancer Action Network of the American Cancer Society, said she was “encouraged” to see President Trump shed a light on childhood cancer rates.
“While the incidence of pediatric cancer has increased in recent decades, the cancer mortality rate between children and adolescents under 20 years of age decreased by more than 50% from 1975 to 2022, according to the National Cancer Institute; although the lasting effects of treatment persist,” said Lacasse. “This progress in survival has been possible thanks to investments in research and advances in treatment.”
Dr. Suhas Kocat is a resident of Internal Medicine at Novant Health in North Carolina and member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
