Missed opportunities to develop childhood cancer programmes in Africa.

In Africa's paediatric population, childhood cancer has a similar disease burden to HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria, primarily due to high disability-adjusted life-years and years of life lost—yet it receives far less attention. 1 Hamdi Y Abdeljaoued-Tej I Zatchi AA et al. Cancer in Africa: the untold story. Front Oncol. 2021; 11650117 Crossref Scopus (36) Google Scholar Childhood cancers are underdiagnosed at 50–57%, 2 Ward ZJ Yeh JM Baktha N Frazier AL Atun R Estimating the total incidence of global childhood cancer: a simulation-based analysis. Lancet Oncol. 2019; 20: 483-493 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (158) Google Scholar so the true incidence is probably 228 000 cases per year, compared with 228 000 paediatric malaria cases and 132 000 paediatric HIV infections. 3 Bhakta N Force LM Allemani C et al. Childhood cancer burden: a review of global estimates. Lancet Oncol. 2019; 20: e42-e53 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (179) Google Scholar In 2019, the corrected mortality for childhood cancer was 59·5 per 100 000 children under 15 years, compared with 51·7 per 100 000 for malaria, 49·0 per 100 000 for tuberculosis, and 32·4 per 100 000 for HIV. Despite being highly curable, childhood cancer is a health crisis equal to adult cancers, but without the same priority.