Kuwait's NBK Children Cancer Hospital launches '18-'20 strategy

KUWAIT, Dec 5 (KUNA) -- The National Bank of Kuwait's Children Cancer Hospital has launched an ambitious three-year strategy to improve the treatment and care given to young cancer patients.
The NBK hospital aims to accommodate and provide world-class treatment for all cancer and blood disease patients in the coming period, the hospital director Dr. Maitham Al-Hussein said in press conference to launch the 2018-2020 strategy at the hospital in Al-Sabah medical zone in Al-Shuwaikh.
He pointed out that the strategy would focus, in its first phase, on patients who are under the age of 16 and have bone marrow donors.
They would subject to intensive course of chemotherapy before undergoing bone marrow transplant surgeries, he said.
He predicted that the number of beneficiaries in this stage range between 12 to 20 patients per year.
If proved successful, the hospital would increase the number of beneficiaries and search for bone marrow donors from outside the hospital to transplant new marrows for all patients, he said.
Hussein said the bone marrow transplant is part of the hospital's cancer and blood diseases treatment programs.
He underlined that the strategy aims to transform the hospital into a leading center for children's cancer treatment. Chronic blood diseases are prevalent in Kuwait particularly among children, he noted. (end) ndq.fs.ibi