448 Iraqi children died from cancer in 2023

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Hundreds of Iraqi children die annually from cancer, most commonly leukemia, according to statistics from the Iraqi Cancer Board on International Childhood Cancer Day.

“A total of 43,062 cancer cases have been registered in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region in 2023, of which 1,922 were among children aged 14 and below,” Sura Yassin, director of the Cancer Registration Division at the Iraqi Cancer Board, told Rudaw on Saturday. These are the latest statistics available.

That is 11 out of every 100,000 children under the age of 14 are diagnosed with cancer.

Tragically, she said that 448 children lost their lives that year due to the disease.

Yassin noted that the province of Muthanna recorded the highest childhood cancer rates, followed by Sulaimani, Erbil, and Baghdad. The province of Babil recorded the lowest rate.

“Leukemia was the most common type of cancer among children, with 551 cases recorded in 2023,” Yassin said, adding that “140 of those cases were fatal.”

Following Leukemia, the most prevalent types of cancer among children according to Yassin “were brain cancer and lymphoma.”

There were notable gender disparities in the number of childhood cancer cases, with a higher incidence in boys. Of the 1,922 diagnosed cases, “1,062 were males and 860 are females,” said Yassin.

February 15 is marked annually as World Childhood Cancer Day, an occasion to raise global awareness about the challenges faced by children battling cancer.