Analysis of Medical Care for Children with Cancer in the Central Federal District in 2017: Ecological Study

Background. Planning the management for medical care delivery for children with cancer, as well as analysis of the effectiveness of medical care delivery is based on the statistical indicators analysis.Objective. Our aim was to analyze the main indicators characterizing medical care delivery for children with cancer in the Central Federal District.Methods. The operative reports for 2017 provided by the executive health protection authorities of 18 subjects of the Russian Federation that are part of the Central Federal District have been analyzed.Results. The study enrolled the following data: number of children was 6 824 049 (0–17 years), pediatric oncological departments — 9, pediatric oncological beds — 464, days of berth employment per year — 319.3. The number of practitioners providing medical care to children with cancer was 91, 64 (70.3%) of them had a certificate of training as a pediatric oncologist. In 11 subjects, the department of pediatric oncology was not available; one of the districts did not provide any pediatric oncological beds. The number of primary patients with malignant neoplasms was 821. The number of deceased patients was 156 including 66 identified in 2017. The incidence of malignant tumors was 12 (per 100 000 for the 0–17 age group), the mortality rate was 2.3 (per 100 thousand for the age group 0–17 years), one-year mortality rate — 8%. We failed to reveal the average time from diagnosis establishing till its validation before the treatment onset since the reports did not provide precise information on the point. 12 (1.5%) primary patients left for treatment abroad.Conclusion. Most reports included indicators which lack congruity with one another. The incidence rates were significantly lower than those in countries with high statistical reliability. The percentage of patients identified actively remained extremely low. To improve the revealed defects a single database of children with oncological diseases should be implemented in the Russian Federation.