iStock/ThinkstockBy DR. JENNIFER ASHTON, ABC News Senior Medical Contributor
Children and teens are now far less likely to die of cancer than they were in the past, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Researchers studied the cancer rate for children and teens from 1999 to 2014 and found a decline of about 20 percent. The rate fell for both white and black children, as well as for male and female kids — although the cancer rate is still 30 percent higher for boys versus girls.
Brain cancer has now replaced leukemia as the leading cause of death among children, a shift thought to be due to significant advances to leukemia treatment.
The findings from this study continue a previous decline. Cancer death rates among children have been falling since the mid-1970s.
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