What know-how Kazakh physicians use to fight childhood cancer
"In the country, all malignant neoplasms are treated in accordance with international therapy programs. Among innovative methods of therapy, we can mention the introduction of modular endoprostheses in children with bone tumors. This allowed increasing the number of limb preservation surgeries with the subsequent lengthening of the prosthesis when a child is growing," said a representative of the press service of the Department of Maternal and Child Health Protection of Kazakhstan.
The Ministry of Health also informed on the introduction of preoperative high-dose chemotherapy in children. Starting in 2013, this has helped save limbs in 91.7% of cases of children with osteogenic sarcomas.
"The introduction of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in the treatment for children with relapsed leukemia, acquired aplastic anemia, and nasty types of solid tumors, has enabled us to achieve effective results that meet the present-day international standards. In total, over 120 transplantations have been made since 2012. The efficacy analyses of HSCT over the past 5 years showed that the survival rate was 72.9% after allogeneic histocompatibility transplantation, 68% after autologous HSCT, and 43.5% after haploidentical transplantation," the ministry also said.
Also, according to the ministry's information, they managed to significantly improve the survival rate for children with retinoblastoma. This was achieved through the introduction of selective intravitreal chemotherapy. A total of 28 such operations have been carried out. The method of selective intra-arterial chemotherapy, which makes it possible to save babies' visual organs, was used for the first time ever in 2018.