Have childhood cancer rates increased 40% since 1975? Here's the truth about Trump’s claim

US President Donald Trump’s maiden speech (for his second term) to Congress on Tuesday has made quite a stir on the internet, as the 47th US President covered a wide range of topics during the speech - some of which begged for some fact-checking as well.Apart from talking on the topic of autism and stating that there had been an increase in the number of children being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, Trump spoke about childhood cancer rates, saying it was a priority of his administration to tackle this issue.The US President said, "Since 1975, rates of child cancer have increased by more than 40 percent. Reversing this trend is one of the top priorities for our new presidential commission to Make America Healthy Again, chaired by our new secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr."The president also took time to highlight a 13-year-old brain cancer survivor, whom he invited as a special guest to attend his address.Although it's unclear where Trump got the 40% figure, data shows that childhood cancer rates have indeed been increasing over the past several decades.However, a pediatric oncologist told ABC News that there's important context missing in that statement, such as the effect of advances in early detection and possible environmental factors.As per Dr. Prensner, an assistant professor of pediatrics and of biological chemistry in the department of cancer biology at the University of Michigan School of Medicine, who told ABC News, "It's accurate to say that these diagnoses have gone up in the tracking data. I think the context for these numbers is incredibly important and that's what I think has been left out, perhaps, of the conversation."Additionally, Prensner said, childhood cancer treatments have been improving, and the number of childhood cancer survivors is increasing.A study published earlier this year in the journal PLOS One that was conducted by researchers in the U.S., Germany, and Jordan found that childhood cancer rates in America have increased by approximately 33% since 1975.The study found that the incidence of childhood cancer rose from 14.23 cases per 100,000 children between 1975 and 1979 to about 18.89 cases per 100,00 children between 2010 and 2019.The increase was found in certain types of cancer, including leukemias, lymphomas, brain tumors, hepatic tumors, and gonadal germ cell tumors, according to the study.Additionally, a report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that over the past 40 years, the number of children diagnosed with leukemia has increased by about 35%.These trends mirror what has been seen in older populations, with cancer rates also increasing in adults under age 50.According to Prensner, scientists believe there are many likely reasons why childhood cancer rates are increasing. One of the main reasons behind the same is better detection and the dramatic improvement in medical tests over the past several decades. Prensner added that many of the tests that are now commonly used didn't exist 50 years ago.Prensner told ABC News, "These include dramatic, dramatic improvements in the ways that we can image patients with CAT scans and MRI scans. This includes improvements in the way that we monitor and screen certain patients. We have much more information now about patients who may have what's called a cancer syndrome, meaning they're at a higher risk to develop cancer."He added, "In those patients, we actively monitor them to be able to make early diagnoses before cancers are able to spread, and so those patients may not have been monitored in prior decades because we didn't have that scientific information.”A study from March 2024 that analyzed over 200 previous studies found that exposure to pesticides, hazardous air pollutants, chemicals like benzene, and vehicular emissions has been linked to higher rates of childhood cancers, particularly leukemia.While childhood cancer rates have increased, childhood cancer mortality rates have significantly declined over the past decades. Between 2001 and 2021, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the cancer death rate for U.S. children and teens aged 19 and younger decreased by 24%, from 2.75 to 2.10 per 100,000 individuals.As per Prensner, there are close to 500,000 childhood cancer survivors in the U.S., many of whom are now adults, indicating that more children are surviving cancer, likely due to advancements in medical treatments and early detection.According to him, "There are some types of childhood cancers that are associated with congenital anomalies or birth defects, and patients who are born with those different disorders also receive better care now, such that they may have a higher cancer rate now, because they're living longer, whereas they may not have lived nearly as long in 1980.”