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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Children and Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1525751

Global, regional, and national burden of children and adolescents with acute lymphoblastic leukemia from 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2021

Provisionally accepted
Lei Wang Lei Wang *Xue Yao Xue Yao Linhua Yang Linhua Yang
  • Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a common cancer in children and adolescents, severely affecting their survival and health.With the discovery of new drugs and improved treatment options, the survival rate of ALL in children and adolescents has improved significantly.: We used the GBD (Global Burden of Disease) database to collect patients aged 0-19 years (0-5 years, 5-9 years, 10-14 years, 15-19 years) diagnosed with ALL between 1990 and 2021. Disease status and change were analyzed by learning about the prevalence, death, incidence, DALYs (disability-adjusted life years), percentage change, and the estimated annual percentage change (EAPC). Results: In 2021, there were 53,485 new cases of childhood and adolescent ALL, 23,991 deaths, and an estimated 1960,922 DALYs. Incidence, deaths and DALYs have declined globally, with only a rise in low-SDI regions. In 2021, middle-SDI regions have the highest cases of prevalence, incidence, deaths, and DALYs, accounting for approximately one-third of the global total. High-SDI regions have the lowest deaths and DALYs. East Asia has the highest prevalence and incidence. Australasia has the lowest death and DALYs. From 1990 to 2021, children and adolescent ALL deaths and DALYs show a declining trend in about 72.5 % of countries, with only Sub-Saharan Africa showing an increase. The prevalence of ALL in children and adolescents is higher in males, with the highest cases in patients under 5 years of age. Conclusion: Our study highlights the trend of decreasing deaths and DALYs of ALL in children and adolescents. However, there is a need to improve healthcare prevention and timely standardized treatment in developing countries and less developed regions.

    Keywords: ALL, Children and adolescents, deaths, DALYs, GBD 2021

    Received: 10 Nov 2024; Accepted: 07 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Yao and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Lei Wang, Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.