Local doctors release 25-year research on childhood cancer in SC

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — A new report on childhood cancer across South Carolina is helping to shine light on trends and disparities related to the disease.

The 62-page document titled “Childhood Cancer in South Carolina: 25-Year-Trends in Incidence, Survival, and Mortality” is a collaboration between Prisma Health Children’s Hospital, the SC Department of Public Health, the University of South Carolina, and the SC Cancer Alliance.

The Childhood Cancer Taskforce in charge of releasing the data was formed with the goal of producing the first statewide report on childhood cancer.

“The cancers that children face — the prognosis and their treatments — are different as compared to adults, and we need to look at them individually or uniquely to understand the challenges and how we can improve things more overtime,” says Dr. Anna Hoppmann, Pediatric Oncologist at Prisma Health Children’s Hospital, and Chair of the Childhood Cancer Taskforce.

The figures show that disparities still remain — with Black and Hispanic children having a lower survival rate than white children.

But overall, there’s been an 11% increase in surviving childhood cancer, with now a relative survival rate of 84% for kids at the five year mark — and research looking to help their quality of life.

“We know as treatments improve, we’re going to have more and more survivors over time. How do we support them and follow them over what we hope will be many decades of survivorship,” she says.

Dr. Caughman Taylor says the data finds that SC’s cases of childhood cancer remain fewer than both regional and national cases.

And while instances of children with lymphoma and leukemia have gone up across the state, the number of brain tumors documented have gone down.

“Well why is that?? Those are the questions of research that we will further do. And since it’s so rare, you have to have enough patients to be able to determine if your answers are correct, or just an association. And so you want to make sure you have correct answers, and so we celebrate that we are less, right? That’s wonderful, but we’ve got to make sure we don’t become more, and we want to share why we’re less with the country and any child,” he says.

For a link to the full report, click here or visit www.sccancer.org/pediatrics and scroll down to the 25-Year Report button.