A register of bone marrow donors is being created in St. Petersburg
This was announced on February 15 by the director of the Institute, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Boris Afanasyev. Recall that on February 15, the International Day of Children with Cancer was once again celebrated all over the world. This day was established by the International Confederation of Organizations of Parents of Children with Cancer (ICCCPO) to raise public awareness of the problems of childhood cancer.
According to B.Afanasyev, there are now about 11 million potential donors in the International Network of Bone Marrow Donor Registries. The search for an unrelated donor is complicated and expensive – it costs about 17 thousand euros. At the same time, in Russia, the state does not pay for this search for the parents of a sick child.
"Abroad, we can find an unrelated donor for only 50-60% of Russians in need," Afanasyev said. – It is almost impossible to find compatible unrelated donors in the West for representatives of the peoples of the North and Tatarstan. That's why it's so important to create your own register." According to the scientist, the all-Russian register of bone marrow donors can be created in three to five years. There is an understanding in the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation of this problem, the professor stressed, you just need to wait for the appropriate order.
"Of course, transplantation is not shown to all patients," Afanasyev noted, "but for some suffering from leukemia, this is the only chance. In addition, there are quite a lot of hereditary diseases in which transplantation is the only method of treatment, otherwise the child will inevitably die."
The head of the laboratory-registry of bone marrow donors, Alexander Alyansky, said that the work on attracting volunteer donors was started at Pavlov St. Petersburg State Medical University seven years ago. "During this time, about two thousand people from different regions of Russia donated 5 milliliters of blood for HLA typing (determination of tissue specificity) in order to become a potential bone marrow donor. Now, after the opening of the institute, work on the creation of the register continues in our laboratory," Alyansky said.
Recall that in the fall of 2007, the R.M. Gorbacheva Institute of Pediatric Hematology and Transplantology was inaugurated in St. Petersburg as part of the Pavlov St. Petersburg State Medical University. The twelve-storey tower is already equipped with the most modern equipment, one floor is completely occupied by a climate control unit to ensure sterile air in the wards.
By the end of February 2008, when a new electrical substation opens, the R.M. Gorbacheva Institute of Pediatric Hematology and Transplantology will be operating at full capacity. There will be 60 transplant beds, where up to 400 bone marrow transplants, both related and unrelated, will be performed annually. 100 transplants were performed at the Institute in 2007.
According to the Parents' Confederation, up to 100,000 children in the world die from cancer every year due to lack of access to modern treatment. In Russia, about 5,000 children get cancer every year, and only 50% of them can be saved. Every year in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, 100 children get cancer. Of these, 70-80% are cured with adequate treatment.
Margarita Belogurova, Head of the Department of Pediatric Hematology at the St. Petersburg City Hospital No. 31, and Elmira Boychenko, Head of the Leukemia Chemotherapy Department at the Children's City Hospital No. 1, outlined a number of acute problems of pediatric oncology in the city. "We treat children with the help of modern intensive programs, the same as in the USA and Europe. These programs are not only highly effective, but also toxic, so children have life-threatening complications from antitumor treatment.
In this regard, accompanying therapy drugs are so necessary, which are not paid from the budget, unlike chemotherapy drugs, but are funded by the CHI upon the fact of a "completed case" and no more than one–third of the amount actually spent," Margarita Belogurova noted. She stressed that this is why parents and charitable foundations are asking for help in raising huge funds for the accompanying therapy needed by the child. "After all, it is infections, not tumors, that are the most common cause of death in cancer departments," doctors say.
"The appointment of a chief pediatric oncologist in St. Petersburg would allow us to build unified approaches in the diagnostic system, begin to solve the problem of donation in pediatric oncology, and build a system of postgraduate training of pediatricians," the chairman of the Standing Committee on Health and Ecology of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg said at a press conference held in St. Petersburg the day before.St. Petersburg Oleg Sergeev. He recalled that the relevant documents have been under consideration by the Health Committee of the city government for almost five months.
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