Database to help fight childhood leukemia

LOCAL hospitals are leading the development of a nationwide leukemia database for children.

The database, which will be officially launched next Saturday, will include information about the patients and their parents, medical records and treatment, and detail the cost for long-term administration.

The national health authority plans to finish registration of all leukemia patients diagnosed this year by the month end, and register patients diagnosed since 2015 by March next year.

Health officials said the database is a milestone for China’s serious disease registration and administration. It will greatly boost the prevention and control of children’s leukemia by regulating diagnosis and treatment across the nation, while giving guidance to policy-makers on cost control and subsidies.

Leukemia is the most prevalent children’s cancer, accounting for 30 percent of pediatric cancer.

The incidence of leukemia for children under 15 years old is three to four every 100,000, which means there are 10,000 new child patients annually in China.

“A nationwide leukemia database allows for better patient management, regulated treatment and drug use, as well as improved clinical capability,” said Jiang Zhongyi, president of Shanghai Children’s Medical Center.

The center has developed the children’s leukemia database in Shanghai and helped build the national system.

“As many treatment plans and medications we use are from Western countries, our own leukemia database can help us find treatments more suitable for Chinese patients,” he added.

Shanghai started to set up a children’s leukemia database in 2015. So far, more than 4,200 cases have been registered for monitoring as well as research on diagnosis and treatment.

The leukemia database is also the first non-infectious disease database in the nation.