Survival of children with bone sarcoma in Europe since 1978: results from the EUROCARE study

Malignant bone tumours in children are rare, accounting for approximately 5 % of all childhood cancers in European countries. In the EUROCARE childhood cancer study, there were 1785 registrations from 16 countries for bone can cers in patients aged 0-14 years during 1978-1989. Of this total, almost th ree-quarters were contributed by childhood cancer registries in Germany and the UK. Estimated 5-year survival rates were 52% for osteosarcoma and 50% for Ewing's sarcoma over the entire study period and 60% for both diagnosti c groups in 1985-1989. For osteosarcoma, survival rates increased substanti ally until about 1985, but then showed no further improvement. For Ewing's sarcoma, there was a steady increase throughout the study period. Improveme nts in survival which had previously been reported from individual countrie s and in clinical series are confirmed as having taken place throughout muc h of Europe on a population basis. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All right s reserved.