S'pore cancer center offers hope to kids with leukemia

CEBU - Believing that cancer patients especially children still have a huge chance of treatment, Parkway Cancer Center of ParkwayHealth came over all the way from Singapore to share knowledge on medical community experience to the Philippines in terms of hematology and stem cell transplant in children.

Held at the Chong Hua Hospital yesterday, Dr. Anselm Lee, a consultant pediatric hematologist and oncologist of the Parkway Hematology and Cancer Center in Singapore, presented the procedures and techniques, and knowledge in his expertise.

According to Dr. Lee, blood stem cells are the only cure for blood diseases and that children should be given treatment as soon as they are known to have the cancer.

Stem cells are cells found in most, if not all, multi-cellular organisms which possess two characteristics — self-renewal or regeneration, which is the ability to go through numerous cycles of cell division while maintaining the undifferentiated state; and potency, which means the capacity to differentiate into specialized cell types or to give rise to any mature cell type.

Treatments, according to Lee, are specialized into two. One is through chemotherapy to condition the patient, with or without radiation therapy. For patients having genetic blood diseases, bone marrow transplant is then needed.

Started 40 years ago, hematopoietic stem cell transplant is conducted to patients with leukemia who would no longer benefit from prolonged treatment or are already resistant to chemotherapy, and also children with inborn defect.

The worldwide survival percentage of leukemia patients using the stem cell transplantation treatment has accounted to 60 percent. On patients with genetic diseases, survival rate is 80 percent.

For acute myeloid leukemia, rate is 70 percent cure with classical allogeneic stem cell transplant, while 80 percent cure with the same treatment on chronic myeloid leukemia.

Chronic lymphatic leukemia, multiple myeloma and thalassemia major were previously classified as “incurable blood diseases”. However, with treatments using the stem cell transplantation, cure rates for these conditions is 90 percent.

Lee said that children confined with thalassemia need blood transfusion every month for the rest of the child’s life. And this transfusion results to diseases since the immune system of the child becomes weaker.

Through applications of stem cell transplant, there is a restoration of deranged immune system as in severe auto-immune disorders.

Sources of hematopoietic stem cells are compatible family members of the patient or an unrelated donor (allogeneic transplant). Or even patient’s own cells which were previously collected and suitably stored (autologous transplant).

Possible donors too are found in the international registry which has already carried million donors worldwide; and what’s most special is that Caucasians have been classified as best donors.

There is also less percentage of aftercare treatment. Only if the patients have gotten complications, aftercare treatment is then given, Lee further said.

ParkwayHealth Care promotes the treatment to medical specialists in the country especially in Cebu, as well as offers the service to those patients who are willing to be treated in their hospitals in Singapore.

The treatment costs 100,000 Singaporean dollars which is cheaper than the treatment offered in the US. Treatment service in the US costs twice as much as that offered in Singapore. Further, cost has depended on keeping the quality of procedures due to safety and accuracy concerns. — Cressida Paula G. Delmo/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)