UTAR’s Centre for Cancer Research (CCR) organised a seminar on “Common Childhood Haematological Malignancies" at Sungai Long Campus on 30 October 2019. Present at the talk were Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences Dean Emeritus Prof Dr Cheong Soon Keng, CCR Chairperson Prof Ts Dr Lim Yang Mooi, Organising Chairperson Assoc Prof Dr Yan Naing Soe, Emeritus Prof Dr Boo Nem Yun, participants and staff.

Dr Yan said, “I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all the speakers for taking your time to be here today to share your knowledge with the participants. I hope this seminar will be fruitful and fascinating to all.”

Prof Cheong said in his opening remark, “Malignancies are close to my heart because for 30 years I’ve been associated with it. It is always interesting to understand the process of diseases and with technological advancement, we are able to understand it better. We hope the invited speakers will share how we’ve moved forward to manage this condition.”

UTAR FMHS lecturer Dr Veronica Poulsaeman gave the first talk titled “Approach to a Child with Haematological Malignancies”. In her talk, she shared the definition of haematological malignancy, classification and overview of leukaemia, symptoms of leukaemia, physical examination, chloroma, Leukaemia-differential diagnosis and the overview of lymphoma. Dr Veronica said, “Haematological malignancy is a collective term for neoplastic diseases of the hematopoietic and lymphoid tissues. Leukaemia is the most common cancer among children worldwide and also Malaysia. Nearly  400 children per year are diagnosed with blood cancer in Malaysia.”

Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia lecturer Dr Loh C-Khai presented her talk titled, “Principles of Management of Childhood Leukaemia”. She spoke about the types of childhood leukaemia, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia treatment, prognosis factors, risk stratification, chemotherapy regiment, Acute Myeloid leukaemia and supportive care. Dr Loh said, “Most cases of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia do not stem from an inherited genetic predisposition but from somatic genetic alterations. The principle of the chemotherapy regime is to induce remission, to maintain remission by systemic chemotherapy and prophylactic CNS therapy and to treat the complications of therapy and of the disease.”

Hospital Wanita & Kanak-Kanak Kuala Lumpur Paediatric Haematologist and Oncologist Dr Teh Kok Hoi presented the third talk titled “Principles of Management of Childhood Lymphomas”. In his talk, he said, “Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is usually seen among school-going children with a relatively slow-growing neck mass. The investigation using PET-CT provides morphologic information which is more sensitive than BMA. However, it is only available in very few centres and it is difficult to arrange in a timely manner.” He also spoke about the incidence of childhood cancer in Malaysia, Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, diagnostic investigation and treatment aim.