Newsroom, February 24, 2026: A pioneering nationwide effort has delivered hopeful data on childhood cancer in India. The Indian Childhood Cancer Survivorship (C2S) study, launched in 2016, followed 5,419 young patients diagnosed before age 18 and treated to remission across 20 centres.
Survival information was available for 5,140 children, revealing a five-year overall survival rate of 94.5% and event-free survival of 89.9%. For those with at least two years of post-treatment follow-up, rates increased to 98.2% overall survival and 95.7% event-free survival.
Acute leukaemia accounted for the largest share of cases at about 41%, with most children receiving chemotherapy.
The multicentre collaboration, including major institutions, marks one of the first such registries in a lower- or middle-income country. While survival figures impress, researchers stress the need to monitor long-term effects that can affect one-third to half of survivors.
