Cancers Among Children A very different distribution of cancers occurs among children under 15 years of age. Acute lymphocytic leukemia was the single most common type of childhood cancer, comprising 23 percent of the total. Tumors of the brain and nervous system were the second most common group, accounting for about 25 percent of the total. Leukemias, tumors of the brain and nervous system, together with lymphomas and neuroblastomas accounted for 71.2 percent of childhood neoplasms. Approximately one in 435 children will be diagnosed with a malignancy by the age of 15.
Cancer rates vary enormously by age.
Rates are lowest in later childhood and adolescence, then continue to rise sharply throughout the succeeding decades. The median age at diagnosis for all cancers combined was 69 years in males and 67 in females. The median age at diagnosis varies by type of cancer, ranging from 31 years for cancer of the bones and joints in males to 76 years for cancer of the stomach in females. Average Lifetime Risk Using current cancer rates and life expectancy, the average lifetime risk of developing cancer or dying from cancer can be estimated. Just as with estimates of life expectancy, these estimates do not apply to any specific individual.