Blood cancers

Acute Lymphoblastic Lymphoma (ALL)
The commonest childhood cancer is acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). This accounts for a third of all childhood cancers in the UK. There is no official statistics from India, but the crude incidence varies from 0.5 to over 2.0 per 100,000 children. In a large tertiary care centre in Southern India, over 2000 children are diagnosed with this condition over a 5 year period and only about a fifth of them could afford proper treatment.

What is ALL?
Leukaemia is a cancer of blood cells. Most commonly it arises from uncontrolled growth of white blood cells, suffocating the bone marrow from producing normal red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. If unchecked, it spreads to brain and other vital organs.

Treatment of ALL
ALL is currently considered to be a curable cancer in children. The treatment involves prolonged administration of chemotherapy as injections and largely tablets over 2-3 years.
About 95% of children affected with ALL get cured of this condition with proper treatment. In sharp contrast, only about 20% of children in India suffering from ALL can afford treatment and not more than 50-60% of those are cured.

Cost of Treatment of ALL in India
The cost of treatment for an average 7 year old child in India is £1,300 - 2,600 ($2,300 - 4,600), depending on treatment related complications.

Other blood cancers
Other forms of acute leukaemia are less common in children, but are curable with chemotherapy or Stem Cell Transplantation. Cancers arising from lymph glands called LYMPHOMAS are not uncommon in children and considered as curable as ALL.

Other cancers
Brain cancers , Tumours arising from other organs as SARCOMAS and Bone Cancers can also be cured in a substantial proportion of children if detected and treated promptly.
In North America, 7 out of 10 childhood cancers are cured. In India, less than 3 out of 10 such children can afford treatment of any sort.
 

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