A growing issue

Li's experience illustrates both the hope and challenges that many pediatric cancer patients in China face.

Data from the Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences shows that recorded childhood (younger than 15) cancers in China rose from about 92 new cases per million children in 2001 to 115 per million in 2010.

Quoting Zhao Qiang from the National Health Commission's expert committee on pediatric cancer, Xinhua News Agency reports that, every year, about 25,000 children in China under the age of 15 are diagnosed with cancer and that childhood cancer rates have increased by 2.8 percent every year.

The most common cancers in children are leukemia, lymphoma and brain tumors, Zhao says.

The latest National Pediatric Cancer Surveillance Annual Report, released by the National Center for Pediatric Cancer Surveillance in March, finds that hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, Guangdong province, are priorities for treatment of childhood cancers, reflecting the regional disparities in access to pediatric resources.

Cao Haixia, a pediatric physician from the Qinghai University Affiliated Hospital, from her own experience, agrees. Located in Xining, Northwest China's Qinghai province, the hospital's pediatric blood oncology unit started from scratch in the early 2000s, according to Cao.

She still remembers how helpless and frustrated she felt when a 12-year-old boy was diagnosed with leukemia in 1997 and there was nothing she could do.

"By then, most parents of such sick children had no choice but to go to top hospitals in big cities, or give up treatment," Cao sighs. Her wish at that time was that one day these children could receive treatment in Qinghai.

The good news is that both the central and local governments have taken action to boost diagnoses and treatment rates for children with cancer in recent years.

Thanks to support and cooperation with top hospitals, Cao is happy to see that her unit has treated the tumors of about 20 children this year, none of whom needed to travel too far for diagnosis and treatment.

According to the National Health Commission's press conference in June, besides the original 10, another 12 types of childhood cancers have been entered to medical insurance coverage this year. Last year, the hospital spending for each child with cancer decreased, on average, by about 11 percent compared with the level spent in the previous year.

Last year, the National Health Commission issued a notice about building five regional pediatric medical centers in across China. The centers will be based at leading children's hospitals in Liaoning, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Shaanxi and Sichuan province, as well as Chongqing.

In coordination with the National Center for Children's Health, the regional centers are expected to improve medical treatment, scientific research, and preventive health care, according to the commission.

In late 2019, the National Center for Pediatric Cancer Surveillance was established, under the auspices of Beijing Children's Hospital, to monitor the country's hospital-based childhood cancer patients. Data shows that children with certain types of leukemia now survive five years or more, according to Ni Xin, head of Beijing Children's Hospital.

"The surveillance center provides scientific support for the authorities to develop strategies to prevent, control, and treat such diseases," Ni said at a news conference held by the National Health Commission in June.