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India’s first nationwide registry of childhood cancer survivors suggests that five-year overall survival has reached an encouraging 94.5 per cent, with event-free survival at nearly 90 per cent, according to a study published in The Lancet Regional Health – Southeast Asia.

The Indian Childhood Cancer Survivorship (C2S) study, launched in 2016, is among the world’s first registries from a resource-constrained setting. Researchers examined 5,419 children diagnosed with cancer before age 18 who had achieved remission, drawing data from 20 treatment centres across the country. Survival information was available for 5,140 participants.

Acute leukaemia emerged as the most common diagnosis, affecting 40.9 per cent of the cohort. Treatment strategies included chemotherapy for 94.7 per cent of children, surgery for 30 per cent, and radiotherapy for 26.3 per cent.

For the full cohort, five-year overall survival (OS) was 94.5 per cent, while event-free survival (EFS) stood at 89.9 per cent. Among 2,266 survivors followed for at least two years post-treatment, OS climbed to 98.2 per cent and EFS to 95.7 per cent.

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Researchers highlighted that the C2S cohort represents a public-private collaboration spanning India’s east, west, north, and south regions. It serves as a model for similar resource-limited settings, providing structured data for policy-focused research on childhood cancer survivorship.

The study also emphasises the importance of monitoring long-term and late effects, which can emerge months or years after treatment. Literature suggests that up to half of childhood cancer survivors experience life-threatening late effects, yet data from low- and middle-income countries remain scarce.

“The C2S study is the first structured attempt to create a nationwide childhood cancer survivor cohort in India,” the authors noted. “It addresses the critical evidence gap on survivorship in lower and middle-income countries and provides a foundation to explore long-term outcomes, treatment exposures, and late effects in the Indian context.”