BHUBANESWAR: The incidence of blood cancer or leukaemia in the country is on the upward spiral with a high number of children getting afflicted by the disease, experts said.
Addressing an event organised at IMS and SUM Hospital here to mark the World Blood Cancer Day on Wednesday, head of the Hematology department, Hemato Oncology, Bone Marrow Transplant Prof Priyanka Samal said pollution, radiation and use of chemical fertiliser are among the prime causes of blood cancer. “Though new cases of leukemia are being detected among the young children in the age group of one to 10 years, around 80 to 90 pc of the children are able to defeat the disease with proper treatment and care,” she added.
The symptoms of the disease which include continued fever, fall in haemoglobin, total leukocyte count and platelet level, appearance of black spots on the body and bleeding, should not be ignored. “Once diagnosed, it can be cured depending on the stage. We have the latest treatment regimen like bone marrow transplantation, haplo transplant and Chimeric Antigen Receptor- T (CAR-T) Cell Therapy, which have been very successful,” Dr Samal added.
Eminent neurosurgeon and SOA’s principal advisor (health sciences) Prof Ashok Kumar Mahapatra, dean Prof Sanghamitra Mishra, medical superintendent (MS) Prof Pusparaj Samantasinghar and MS of SUM’s Phulnakhara campus Prof Rajesh Lenka spoke.