Accounting for 57.21 percent of the cases, leukemia was the most common cancer among children with malignant tumors or benign ones of the central nervous system, according to a report based on data of patients discharged from hospitals in China from January 2017 to December 2018.

Released by the National Center for Pediatric Cancer Surveillance (NCPCS) on Saturday, the annual report is focused on pediatric cancer diagnosis and treatment in the country. It compiled data from 329,093 pediatric tumor case report cards from 313 pediatric tumor monitoring sites nationwide. 

"Malignant tumor has become a serious threat to the health of children and adolescents, and a major cause of disability for children and poverty for families in China," said Ni Xin, director of the NCPCS and head of Beijing Children's Hospital under Capital Medical University. "Early detection, diagnosis and treatment of children's tumors are of great significance because of the variety of diseases and the difficulty of treatment."

Ni said the annual report aimed at standardization of diagnosis, treatment, follow-up and whole-process management of pediatric tumors, besides promoting scientific research in related fields.

Beijing Children's Hospital under Capital Medical University was approved in 2019 to establish the NCPCS for setting up a national monitoring system.

The center has carried out a series of tasks, including the construction of a national pediatric tumor monitoring platform, case registration and personnel training at pediatric tumor monitoring sites, data management and analysis, and composing annual monitoring report.

Ni hoped that the center will expand the monitoring network to provide a more sufficient scientific basis for quality control, efficacy evaluation and related research in the field and improve the standards for diagnosis and treatment.