(NPR) – Every year, an estimated 400,000 children worldwide develop a form of cancer. Five-year survival rates in high-income nations are typically over 80%, with an expected cure rate of near 100% for some cancers like retinoblastoma — a malignant eye tumor that strikes about 8,000 children annually.

The picture in low- and middle-income countries is far bleaker. The average five-year survival rate for children in these countries is less than 20%. That figure comes from a a 2023 study in The Lancet Oncology journal compiled by specialists from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and seven other academic institutions in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Chile and Guatemala. (Read More)