ICA continues to provide financial aid to collect and process data on children afflicted with acute lymphatic leukemia and who are undergoing treatment according to the National Protocol, which is a unique extension of the German Protocol - BFM.
The current global and local aim in Israel is to help all children recover from the disease and to tailor the most suitable treatment to each child, according to the type of leukemia from which they suffer, and the specific level of risk.
The ICA continues to provide financial assistance to collect and process data on acute childhood lymphatic leukemia patients who are undergoing treatment according to the National Protocol which is the unique extension of the German Protocol - BFM. All statistics are processed by the Statistics Department at the Hebrew University, with financial assistance from the ICA. The Protocol is coordinated by Prof. Batya Shtark and Prof. Shai Izraeli.
Since the Protocol's inception some 20 years ago, disparities in survival rates no longer exist among children who developed leukemia and received treatment at different medical centers. Additionally, the gaps that once existed between the survival rates of Jewish and Arab children afflicted with the disease have virtually dissipated.
The past decade has seen the development of methods for submicroscopic detection of leukemia cells, which has facilitated reduced intensive treatment in patients at low risk for recurrence, thereby helping them evade long-term treatment damage; additionally, it enables the detection of high risk child patients who require intensive treatment with potentially life-saving impact.
The ICA has assumed the task of upgrading this technology until its efficacy has been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt. The ICA assists in the upgrade of the Israeli Protocol and funds jobs for technicians to develop new technologies for the detection of minimal residual disease (MRD), and to collect bone marrow samples. This assistance facilitates state-of-the-art treatment for Israeli child patients.
Today, thanks to this significant investment, the technology has established itself, and is included in Israel's medications and technologies health package.
Involvement of Pediatric Oncology Wards in Israel in the treatment of children with Rhabdomyosarcoma and other Sarcomas, according to the European Protocol:
Since 2006, the Israeli society of Hematology Oncology has taken an active part in the European Protocol for the Treatment of Rhabdomyosarcoma, coordinated by Prof. Myriam Ben-Arush.
The ICA finances two travel grants a year for Israeli delegates participating in this Protocol and assists in financing a part-time job for a technician who conducts the molecular biology tests at Schneider Children's Medical Center for all the rest of the medical centers across the country.
The National Protocol was recently upgraded and joined the New European Protocol.
Assist in financing the National Acute Lymphatic Leukemia Protocol - US$ 65,000. Kindly contact us, should you wish to contribute to this project. Please note that all donations received are transferred in full (no overhead is taken).
Lili Lev Biller
Committees and Projects Coordinator
Telephone: +972-3-571.95.74
E-Mail: lilib@cancer.org.il