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Background Advances in the treatment of childhood hematologic malignancies have led to improvements in survival for several of these conditions during the past few decades, but most population-based survival data available to date refer only to patients diagnosed up to the mid-1990s. Methods We used period analysis to assess trends in 5- and 10-year survival in US patients younger than 15 years of age at diagnosis with four hematologic malignancies—acute lymphoblastic leukemia, acute non-lymphoblastic leukemia, Hodgkin lymphoma, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma—over three recent 5-year intervals, 1990-1994, 1995-1999, and 2000-2004, using data on a total of 6957 patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. Expected survival for 2005-2009 was estimated by modeling from trends in the preceding intervals. Results Major improvements in 5- and 10-year relative survival between 1990-1994 and 2000-2004 were seen for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (from 80.2% to 87.5% and from 73.4% to 83.8%, respectively), acute non- lymphoblastic leukemia (from 41.9% to 59.9% and from 38.7% to 59.1%, respectively), and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (from 76.6% to 87.7% and from 73.0% to 86.9%, respectively). For those diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, 5- and 10-year survival rates for the 1990-1994 period were 96.1% and 94.4%, respectively, and these rates did not change substantially in the later time periods. Projected 10-year survival rates for children diagnosed in the 2005-2009 period were 88.0% for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, 63.9% for acute non-lymphoblastic leukemia, 90.6% for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and 94.3% for Hodgkin lymphoma. Conclusions Application of period analysis to a population-based study of childhood hematologic malignancies reveals ongoing increases in survival for three of the four common childhood hematologic malignancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]