THE top cancer afflicting children in Davao city is still leukemia or cancer of the blood.
Pediatric hematologist/oncologist Cheryl Lyn Diez of the Children’s Cancer Institute of the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) said during the Kapihan sa PIA (Philippine Information Agency) Friday, February 15, that there are 350 new leukemia cases per year in the city.
She said that leukemia is followed by retinoblastoma (eye cancer) and osteosarcoma (bone cancer) with most cases being treated at SPMC.
The target patients of Children’s Cancer Institute Department of Pediatric are those below 19 years old.
She added that with all the modern technology, the survival rate of leukemia has improved slowly.
“I cannot give you the numbers but the survival rate in leukemia increased from before,” she added.
Asked if there is any alternative way aside from chemotherapy as some of the patients cannot handle the after-effects of the treatment, she said: "The treatment of leukemia is really chemotherapy, there’s no other way. When you say they can’t handle it, the doctors will evaluate the patients first before we treat them."
The treatment for leukemia will take two to three years, she said. However, surveillance monitoring is necessary as it takes some 10 years before one can conclude that the cancer cells are completely gone.
Diez said leukemia has unknown causes, but it is not categorized as a hereditary disease. She also verified that radiation is one of the causes of leukemia but studies and researches of the cancer’s main causes are still ongoing.
She also advised the public to live a healthy lifestyle to get rid of cancer.
Meanwhile, Diez underscored that bed capacity for cancer patients has already increased to 44 beds from 25 beds in 2010. Another six beds for patients undergoing chemotherapy was also added as of 2019. (Erika B. Ramos, UM Intern)