Background: Between 1990 and 2010, many national and international factors converged to both beneficially and antagonistically affect people’s health as well as the Thai healthcare system. Among these were: a falling birth rate in Thailand and a gradual decline in poverty-related diseases. Cancer becomes the most common cause of death.
Objective: To analyze Thailand’s childhood neoplasm issues for baseline information for changing medical education, services and research.
Material and Method: Information on the illnesses of in-patients, out-patients and casualties was based on hospital withdrawals nationwide from the three health insurance schemes in the fiscal year 2010. The data, which included 96% of the population, were analyzed by age groups and burden of neoplasm disease.
Results: The children with neoplasms were treated 127,597 times at outpatient departments (OPD) and 19,159 times at inpatient departments (IPD) at community hospitals (4.3%), provincial hospitals (8.5%), regional or university hospitals (86.1%) and private hospitals (1.1%). Malignant neoplasms of lymphoid hematopoietic and related tissues were the most common in both IPD and OPD settings, which resulted in the highest cost of treatment. Tumors of the central nervous system were associated with the highest cost. The mean length of stay for all patients with neoplasm was 7.85 days.
Conclusion: Sufficient budget should be allocated to the more heavily frequented treatment center. Specific and better care, national treatment protocols for each type of childhood cancer (including palliative care) should be developed to improve the treatment outcomes and/or the quality of life. Medical schools and health service systems need to be recalibrated to respond proactively to these changes being experienced by the healthcare system.

Keywords: Childhood, Neoplasms, Cancer, Thai children