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This paper reports the latest survival data for French childhood cancer patients at the national level. Data from the two French National Registries of Childhood Cancer (Haematopoietic Malignancies and Solid Tumours) were used to describe survival outcomes for 15,479 children diagnosed with cancer between 2000 and 2008 in mainland France. The overall survival was 91.7% at 1 year, 86.9% at 2 years and 81.6% at 5 years. Relative survival did not differ from overall survival even for infants. Survival was lower among infants for lymphoblastic leukaemia and astrocytoma, but higher for neuroblastoma. For all cancers considered together, 5-year survival increased from 79.5% in the first (2000-2002) diagnostic period to 83.2% in the last (2006-2008) period. The improvement was significant for leukaemia, both myeloid and lymphoid, central nervous system tumours (ependymoma) and neuroblastoma. The results remained valid in the multivariate analysis, and, for all cancers combined, the risk of death decreased by 20% between 2000-2002 and 2006-2008. The figures are consistent with various international estimates and are the result of progress in treatment regimens and collaborative clinical trials. The challenge for the French registries is now to study the long-term follow-up of survivors to estimate the incidence of long-term morbidities and adverse effects of treatments.

The French National Registry of Childhood Haematopoietic Malignancies and the French National Registry of Childhood Solid Tumours jointly ensure the surveillance of cancer in children aged less than 15 years in mainland France. During the period 2000-2004, the registries recorded a total of 8473 cases: 3446 cases of haematological malignancies and 5027 cases of solid tumours. The average number of sources per case was 2.7 and diagnosis was documented by cytology/histology in 94% of cases, ensuring high quality data. The age-standardized incidence rate for all cancers combined was 156.6 cases per million children per year, with a sex ratio of 1.2. The most frequent cancers were leukaemia (29%), central nervous system tumour (23%), lymphoma (12%) and neuroblastoma (8%). In France, an estimated one out of every 440 children presents with cancer before the age of 15 years. The incidence rates are close to those of other industrialized countries, but somewhat higher than those estimated by the French local registries for the period 1990-1999, probably because of improved methodology or perhaps a real increase in some rates. The French National Registries of Childhood Cancer have shown that they are able to fulfil public health surveillance missions satisfactorily and support the national programme for research on childhood cancer.