A landmark review led by AIIMS New Delhi has, for the first time, consolidated three decades of published childhood cancer survival evidence from across India, giving policymakers a comprehensive baseline to measure progress and identify gaps in the country's fight against paediatric cancers. The study was published in JCO Global Oncology.

Scope and Methodology

Researchers screened 6,802 published articles up to December 2023 and ultimately included 182 studies drawn from treatment centres nationwide. The combined dataset covered 22,886 children, making it the most extensive synthesis of its kind undertaken in India. The review was led by Sameer Bakhshi, Professor and Head of the Department of Medical Oncology at AIIMS New Delhi, in collaboration with CanKids…KidsCan, the World Health Organisation (WHO), and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in the United States.

Key Survival Estimates

The exploratory pooled estimates revealed substantial variation in outcomes across cancer types. Five-year overall survival was estimated at 67.1% for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, 93.1% for Hodgkin lymphoma, 76.8% for retinoblastoma, and 78.8% for Wilms tumour.

Three-year overall survival stood at 60.9% for acute myeloid leukaemia, 97% for chronic myeloid leukaemia, 56.9% for neuroblastoma, and 60.3% for osteosarcoma. The review additionally reported a median overall survival of 43.9 months for medulloblastoma and 21.2 months for Ewing sarcoma. Notably, outcomes were significantly poorer for children with extraocular retinoblastoma, where pooled two-year overall survival fell to 44.9% — underscoring the critical importance of early detection.

What Researchers and Experts Said

Bakhshi said, 'We hope this work will stimulate stronger cancer registries, multicentre collaborative research and standardised outcome reporting, enabling India to measure progress more effectively and continuously improve outcomes for children with cancer.'

Poonam Bagai, Founder-Chairman of CanKids…KidsCan, contextualised the findings within India's broader health targets. 'India's driving 2030 goals, aligned with the UNGA 80 call, the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer and Universal Health Coverage, are 100 per cent access to care, 100 per cent financial protection and at least 60 per cent survival,' she said. Bagai stressed that without a survival evidence baseline, measuring progress or identifying where children were being left behind would be impossible.

Vinod Paul, former Member (Health) at NITI Aayog, called it a 'landmark study' that gives India 'an important evidence base for childhood cancer survival.' He added that a patient-centred system 'must measure not only whether a child reaches treatment, but whether the child remains in care, completes treatment, survives and thrives.'

Why This Matters for Policy

India lacks a unified, real-time childhood cancer registry, and survival data has historically been fragmented across individual institutions. This review addresses that gap by creating a consolidated national picture — one that advocates say is essential for directing resources, benchmarking treatment quality, and holding the healthcare system accountable. This comes amid growing international momentum: the WHO's Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer aims to achieve at least 60% survival for children with cancer in all countries by 2030.

What Comes Next

The authors and collaborators are calling on government agencies, clinicians, researchers, and civil society to use these findings to strengthen cancer registries and accelerate equitable access to treatment. The study's authors hope it will catalyse multicentre collaborative research and standardised reporting frameworks that allow India to track improvement continuously — not just at the level of individual hospitals, but across the healthcare system as a whole.