China News Service, Chongqing, April 21 (Reporter Chen Chao) April 15 to 21 is the 28th "National Cancer Prevention Publicity Week".
On the 21st, the Children's Hospital Affiliated to Chongqing Medical University released a hand-painted cartoon by a nurse in the hematology and oncology department of the hospital. The cartoon tells how hematopoietic stem cell transplantation defeats "blood cancer" and popularizes that childhood leukemia is not an incurable disease.
According to the "National Children's Tumor Surveillance Annual Report 2020", leukemia ranks first among childhood tumors, causing far more damage to children than other diseases.
Many people shudder when they hear leukemia, and may think that leukemia is a terminal illness.
"Actually, childhood leukemia, especially acute lymphoblastic leukemia, has a relatively high cure rate in malignant tumors," said Associate Professor Dou Ying, deputy director of the Department of Hematology and Oncology, Children's Hospital Affiliated to Heavy Medicine.
Leukemia is commonly known as "blood cancer". Although leukemia will bring great pain to children and their families, with the development of medical technology, childhood leukemia is not an incurable disease.
Hand-drawn cartoon released by Children's Hospital Affiliated to Chongqing Medical University.
Photo courtesy of Children's Hospital Affiliated to Heavy Medicine
Associate Professor Dou Ying introduced that, in general, for children with low- and intermediate-risk leukemia, chemotherapy is mainly used; for high-risk children, after chemotherapy remission, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation can be considered.
Through the continuous optimization of the treatment plan and the implementation of multi-drug combination chemotherapy, the cure rate of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children with low and intermediate risk, which accounts for 70% of the entire childhood leukemia, has reached 80%; the overall cure rate of acute promyelocytic leukemia has reached 80%. More than 90%; the overall cure rate of acute myeloid leukemia is about 60%.
Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation can further improve the survival rate of children with refractory and relapsed leukemia, and increase the hope of survival for children.
At present, more than 500 hematopoietic stem cell transplants have been performed in the Department of Hematology and Oncology, Children's Hospital Affiliated to China, and the survival rate of children after transplantation has reached about 85%, saving the lives of many children with refractory and relapsed leukemia.
If parents find that their children have unexplained paleness, bleeding, enlarged liver, spleen and lymph nodes, bone pain and fever, etc., they should take their children to a regular specialist hospital for examination in time for early diagnosis and regular treatment.
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