Survival for Victorian children diagnosed with cancer is at an all-time high, with a report released by Cancer Council Victoria today showing overall five-year cancer survival in children under the age of 15 years has increased from 68 per cent in 1982 to 82 per cent in 2010.

Director, RCH Children’s Cancer Centre Dr Francoise Mechinaud said the way we support patients and new medication can be attributed to the improved outcomes, but there is still much work to be done.

“Brain is a significant issue – not only can the tumour be quite aggressive, but there are issues about whether we can do surgery because some areas of the brain are so crucial”, Dr Mechinaud told The Age.

The report also found that the number of children treated in paediatric system had increased significantly since the introduction of the Paediatric Integrated Cancer Service (PICS) in 2004. The PICS is a partnership between the RCH, Southern Health and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre that was established to provide the best care, in the best facility, as close to home as possible.

RCH patient and cancer survivor Julian Pegoraro said being diagnosed with cancer was confronting but that at the time he had to get used to it, and the support everyone gave him was what got him through. “Everyone was so kind”, he said.

Click on the links to read The Age and Herald Sun stories.

Click below to view the Seven News story.