Patients diagnosed with rate cancers (RC) are disadvantaged with respect to those diagnosed with common cancers. Due to their rarity, diagnosis of RC is often delayed, clinical research is difficult, clinical management is often complex and hard outside a few specialized centers. Two recent papers described the burden of RC in the US 1 and Europe 2 and estimated that a significant proportion, 20%-24% of all patients diagnosed with cancer, are rare. Both papers defined rarity using an annual incidence rate cutoff <6/100 000, and they used the same list of clinically relevant and histologically defined RC. The list was developed by the Surveillance of RC

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Improvements during 1978 to 2006 in the 5-year survival rate of adolescents and young adults (AYAs, age 15-39) and children with cancers common to both age groups were evaluated for 1978 to 2006 in Europe and the USA. AYAs had absolute survival increases of 25% and 15% in Europe and the USA, respectively, but in both cases, AYA 5-year survival was, as of 2006, 4% lower than those in children. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) explained most of the survival difference between AYAs and children on both the continents. In the USA, 20- to 39-year-olds with ALL have had less survival improvement than those in Europe.

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