gms | German Medical Science

The Hungarian Childhood Leukemia Working Group, later as the Hungarian Paediatric Oncology Group (HPOG) maintains a systematic registry of the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of children with leukemia and solid tumors since 1971 and 1973, respectively. HPOG has developed a uniform, nation-wide paediatric oncology service in Hungary, a country with ten million inhabitants and limited economic resources characterized by a slowly but significantly growing annual cancer incidence of 132 per one million below the age of 15 years. The newly diagnosed 200-250 patients are being treated in 8 centers, 2 haematopoietic stem cell transplantation units and in one rehabilitation facility according to contemporary protocols, and are followed-up together with the increasing number of children who are cured from cancer. HPOG became an integral part of the international paediatric oncology community. As a result of the coordinated efforts of the members of HPOG, children with cancer in Hungary experience overall and event-free survival rates similar to that of other industrialized countries.