Objectives: To investigate the survival of children with cancer diagnosed during 1980-91 in order to assess the impact of developments in medical care on a population basis.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Great Britain. Subjects—14 973 children with cancer diagnosed during 1980-91 and included in the population based National Registry of Childhood Tumours.

Main outcome measures: Actuarial survival rates.

Results: For all cancers combined, two year survival increased from 66% to 76% between 1980-2 and 1989-91, and five year survival increased from 57% to 65% between 1980-2 and 1986-8. Significant increases in survival rates occurred among children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, acute nonlymphocytic leukaemia, retinoblastoma, osteosarcoma, Ewing9s sarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, and malignant gonadal germ cell tumours. No trend in survival was seen for children with Hodgkin9s disease, central nervous system tumours, neuroblastoma, or Wilms9s tumour.

Conclusions: Nearly two thirds of children who have cancer diagnosed can now expect to survive at least 10 years.