Every year around 25000 Indian children are diagnosed with cancer whereas, the number of children diagnosed with acute leukemia has doubled in last 20 years. This raises a serious need for the early diagnosis and the effective management of these patients. This article provides some data on the studies performed on Indian pediatric patient and some recommendations on improving survival outcomes within India. Leukemia (> 95% of which are acute) is the most prevalent cancer in pediatric patients throughout the world and in India.
Remarkable progress has been made in the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) with 5-year overall survival rate reaching 90% in developed countries. However, the documented Indian studies indicate the overall progress in the diagnostics and therapy, the magnitude of the progress is still modest. This article gives an overview of such Indian studies and…
