Recent research conducted by the scientists of the Shirdi Sai Baba Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, and Kasturba Medical College and Hospital, at Manipal in Karnataka, to study the mortality and incidence of cancer in children under 15 in Bombay, reveals that potential years of life are lost by major childhood cancer deaths in the economic capital of India.

The findings of the study indicate that leukaemia accounts for 30 to 50 per cent of premature life lost by cancer, regardless of gender or age. If avoided by timely diagnosis and therapy, it could have increased the person's life span by nearly 50 per cent.