3 min readPuneApr 3, 2026 04:43 AM IST
Cancer is the 10th leading cause of death among children in India, as per the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2023 study published in The Lancet.
Globally, it is the eighth leading cause for childhood deaths, ahead of measles, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, with outcomes largely determined by resource availability, as per the study led by researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics Evaluation at the University of Washington School of Medicine and St Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
In 2023 alone, as per the study, there were 3.77 lakh new cases of childhood cancer and 1.44 lakh deaths worldwide.
While the study also shows that since 1990, new cases have been relatively stable globally, and deaths have decreased by 27%, children in low- and middle-income countries fare the worst. They accounted for 85% of the new cases, 94% of the deaths and 94% of disability-adjusted life years in 2023.
South Asia alone accounts for 20.5% of the global deaths, the study shows. Compared to the drop globally, it saw a 16.9% decline in childhood cancer deaths from 1990 to 2023. In India, approximately 17,000 children died of cancer in 2023.
The cancer types with the greatest burden globally in 2023 were leukemias, brain/central nervous system cancers and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (cancer of the lymph system).
Commenting on the India findings, Dr Venkatraman Radhakrishnan, Professor of Medical Oncology at the Cancer Institute, Adyar, Chennai, said it was a matter of concern that “despite this, childhood cancer is not included in India’s national cancer control planning”.
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Noting that “most of the deaths in low- and middle-income countries are preventable”, he added: “Addressing this requires urgent inclusion of childhood cancer in national cancer control plans, alongside investment in early diagnosis, access to essential treatment, strong supportive care and robust cancer registries to guide planning and improve outcomes.” The study’s authors say that information on childhood cancer burden is crucial for effective cancer policy planning. “Unfortunately, observed paediatric cancer data are not available in every country, and previous global burden estimates have not discretely reported several common cancers of childhood… GBD 2023 data sources for cancer estimation included population-based cancer registries, vital registration systems, and verbal autopsies.”
Lisa Force, lead author from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said, “The vast majority of children with cancer live in low- and middle-income countries, where delays in diagnosis, lack of access to essential cancer treatment, and other health system limitations and barriers to care can contribute to disparities in childhood cancer burden.”
