Brain cancer is now the leading cause of death among children in the U.S, according to Government statisticians. Leukemia has been pushed to second place, according to the rankings released on Friday

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Sally Curtin of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said, "I think most people, when they think of childhood cancer, think of leukemia. This is kind of a changing of the guard."

The US National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) found that Brain tumors and leukemia kill more children than any other type of cancer. One potential silver lining to this is that the previous No. 1 cancer killer among children and teens is no more the deadliest childhood cancer.

The overall death rate from cancer, according to new federal data, is on decline thanks to improved leukemia treatment. But brain tumors have moved ahead of leukemia, according to a review of 15 years of death certificates.

The NCHS also found that deaths due to cancer fell by 20 percent between 1999 and 2014. Yet, it is the fourth leading cause of death in the US.

The data also revealed that pediatric cancer accounted for about 1 in 10 childhood deaths in 2014.

However, leukemia and brain cancer are still the top two killers, according to the NCHS. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention also found that these two diseases account for more than half of all childhood cancer deaths. While 534 of cancer deaths were due to brain cancer, 445 died due to leukemia.

"In both 1999 and 2014, more than one-half of all cancer deaths among children and adolescents aged 1-19 years were attributable to either leukemia or brain cancer," the team highlighted in their report.